Swimming is generally considered to be a healthy leisure activity for both the young and old. Swimming is even often advised as the most appropriate sport for asthmatic children [1–3], mainly (but probably not solely) on the grounds that inhaling moist air is less conducive to triggering exercise-induced asthma [4]. However, for obvious reasons of microbiological safety, the water of public and...

BACKGROUND A reduced platelet survival time has been described in asthmatic patients. There is also good evidence that platelets are involved in aspirin induced asthma. Since aspirin intolerant patients usually suffer from an active disease and often require anti-inflammatory treatment, it has been suggested that platelet survival time may be shorter in aspirin intolerant asthmatic subjects tha...

OBJECTIVE Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease induced by many environmental factors. The inhalation of allergens and pollutants promotes the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to airway inflammation, hyper-responsiveness, and remodeling in allergic asthma. The effects of asthma medications on ROS production are unclear. The present study investigated the anti-ROS ef...

Allergic and hypersensitivity reactions such as anaphylaxis and asthma exacerbations may occur during air travel. Although the exact incidence of in-flight asthma and allergic emergencies is not known, we have concerns that this subject has not received the attention it warrants. There is a need to provide passengers at risk and airlines with the necessary measures to prevent and manage these e...

It is known that, in stable asthmatics at rest, tidal expiratory flow limitation (EFL) and dynamic hyperinflation (DH) are seldom present. This study investigated whether stable asthmatics develop tidal EFL and DH during exercise with concurrent limitation of maximal exercise work rate (WRmax). A total of 20 asthmatics in a stable condition and aged 32+/-13 yrs (mean+/-SD) with a forced expirat...

Ventilatory function after three types of exercise-running, cycling, and swimming-was studied in 10 control subjects and 40 asthmatic patients. All performed eight minutes of submaximal aerobic exercise during each of the programmes, which were conducted in a randomly selected order. Biotelemetric monitoring of heart rates was used to equate the intensity of the exertion undertaken during the t...

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease with variable characteristics such as lung function, symptoms and control, body weight, pattern of inflammation, and response to treatment. Brittle asthma is one of clinical phenotypes of asthma with unclear pathogenic mechanisms and appropriate treatment. Analysis of 2 described cases suggests that omalizumab could be useful in the treatment of brittle allergi...

BACKGROUND There are studies indicating that bronchial asthma is often underdiagnosed, while only a little research has been conducted as concerns overdiagnosing asthma. OBJECTIVE We aimed to estimate the number of patients who have been given the wrong diagnosis of asthma. METHODS All patients aged above 18 years who had visited two GPs during 1994 or 1995, with the diagnosis of bronchial ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Worldwide incidence of bronchial asthma is on rise. Infections either viral or bacterial and various environmental factors are considered as major risk factors for exacerbations in various studies. Despite of awareness and preventive strategies to risk factors, exacerbations largely remain uncontrolled, therefore the study was planned to review the existing risk factor...

To investigate the mechanisms contributing to refractoriness in exercise induced asthma a methacholine challenge test was performed 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after two exercise tests 45 minutes apart. Exercise was performed by 12 asthmatic patients while they were breathing cold air. There was a smaller airway response to the second exercise test than to the first, though there was wide ...