Not the article I was looking for but this will so.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/420661?src=search

Clinical Comparison of Childhood and Adult-Onset Asthma
Elizabeth Bel, MD,[22] of Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands,
asked if childhood and adult-onset asthma are distinct entities. In ongoing
work, Bel and colleagues have evaluated these groups and determined that
predictive factors for childhood-onset asthma include atopy, IgE level, and
family history. These factors did not appear to be predictive in adult-onset
asthma. Sixty-six percent of these patients with childhood asthma become
symptom-free later in life, followed by relapse in 50% of these patients.
Risk factors for relapse and persistence include female gender, severe
disease in childhood, family history, and smoking (either passive or
active). However, Warner and colleagues did not demonstrate pathological
differences between the 2 groups when airway biopsies were examined.[23]
Regarding adult-onset asthma, atopy is not a prominent factor. When the 2
groups, childhood-onset and adult-onset asthma, were compared, the
adult-onset asthma group demonstrated a more significant decline in FEV1.
Their initial FEV1 values were not different and all subjects were
nonsmokers. On further analysis, the adult-onset patients with no atopy and
positive serology for Chlamydia pneumoniae experienced an even greater
decline in FEV1/year: 100 mL/year vs 40 mL/year in the groups with only 1 or
2 of these risk factors. Due to issues with C pneumoniae titers and the high
prevalence in adults, more study is required employing other techniques
(polymerase chain reaction, culture) to confirm this observation.