Primary outcome measures were the asthma-related clinical events. Secondary measures were the serum concentrations of IgE, specific IgE, ECP, Eos, IL-2 soluble receptor alpha (IL-2Rα, to reflect T-cell related inflammatory state) and transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ, a profibrotic factor whose expression is increased in asthmatics, indicating airway remodeling. All parents supplied written informed consent prior to the study. Human experimentation guidelines of Good Clinical Practice, the German Drug Act and the declaration of Helsinki / Hong Kong were followed in the conduct of clinical research.