The pathogenesis of physical urticarias is unknown and the treatment is often difficult and unsatisfactory. A patient with severe exercise-induced angio-oedema and urticaria is reported who responded dramatically to cromoglycate by insufflation and not when treated with orally active cromoglycate.

Peak expiratory flow (PEF) and plasma concentrations of platelet factor 4 and beta thromboglobulin were measured before and after exercise in nine asthmatic patients and 12 non-asthmatic volunteers. Exercise was preceded by administration in random order of either placebo, salbutamol 200 micrograms, or sodium cromoglycate 2 mg from a pressurised inhaler. In control subjects there were minimal c...

The effects of sodium cromoglycate and ketotifen were studied in a group of 20 patients in whom fish repeatedly provoked an attack of wheezing and dyspnoea within one hour of its being eaten. Fish ingestion resulted in a fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) of at least 15%. All patients had a weal greater than 4 mm in response to fish antigen in the skinprick test and most had ...

The causes of asthma remain unknown although it is now clear that the underlying pathology of the disease, even in its mildest forms, is one of chronic persistent inflammation. This fact is recognised in many national, and more recently, international guidelines, which recommend that treatment in all but the most mild episodic asthma should be aimed at the underlying pathology rather than at su...

Although basic mechanisms of bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) are still incompletely understood, inflammation of airways is likely to play a fundamental role in modulating BHR in patients with asthma. The involvement of several inflammatory cells (eosinophils, mast cells, lymphocytes, neutrophils, macrophages and platelets) and of bioactive mediators secreted by these cells in the pathogene...