Almost half of the patients were not diagnosed with asthma at the time of hospitalization despite having a medical history suggestive of the disease. In the remaining patients with an established diagnosis of asthma potentially modifiable factors like bad adherence to treatment and poor inhalation technique were found. Implementing a nationwide asthma program including continued medical education for the correct diagnosis and follow up of these patients and asthma education for patients and caregivers is needed to reduce asthma hospitalization rates in Chilean children.

Objective: To describe potential regional variations in therapies for severe asthma exacerbations in Chilean children and estimate the associated health expenditures.

Introduction: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited, progressive, multisystem disease. Better physical capacity may slow disease progression, thus improving prognosis and survival. The objective of this research was to evaluate the physical capacity of children admitted to the National CF Program of the Metropolitan Region, Chile. Patients and Method: A multicenter, cross-sectional study design was used. The inclusion criteria were children aged 6 to 12 years enrolled in the National CF Program; Tanner sexual maturity stage I, no respiratory exacerbations in the last 30 days, and no musculoskeletal pathologies. The maximum aerobic capacity was assessed through the peak oxygen uptake (VO 2 peak) and determined with an incremental protocol in a magnetic cycle ergometer connected to an ergo-spirometer with which, at the same time, respiratory gases, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production values every 30 seconds, anaerobic threshold, and maximum workload were analyzed. The values of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV 1 ), FEV 1 /FVC ratio, and forced expiratory flows between 25% and 75% of vital capacity were assessed through ergo-spirometry. At the beginning of the ergo-spirometry,

La pandemia de CoVID-19, puede limitar el recurso en salud en el escenario intrahospitalario para el manejo de pacientes graves, principalmente adultos; por lo cual se deben establecer estrategias desde el ámbito pediátrico, que pueden repercutir consecuentemente en los días camas destinados habitualmente a la población infantil. De los pacientes que emplean ventilación mecánica prolongada, un número importante es manejado en domicilio, siendo considerados de alto riesgo de hospitalización y complicaciones; por otro lado, existen algunos de ellos que permanecen institucionalizados por razones clínicas y/o sociales. Este artículo pretende entregar orientaciones para su manejo seguro, tanto en domicilio como en los servicios de pediatría de nuestro país, durante tiempos de pandemia CoVID – 19.