PURPOSE Airways remodeling, evaluated as the subepithelial layer thickness, was compared in asthmatic patients with that of healthy subjects, and was related to clinical grading of disease, presence of atopy, and length of asthmatic history. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Thirty-four patients with stable asthma (mean age+/-SD: 26.5+/-9.2 years; 10 female) treated with only inhaled beta2-agonists and ei...

Salmeterol is a selective long-acting beta 2-agonist bronchodilator considered to have added anti-inflammatory effects, but this is controversial. We investigated the effects of a single dose of salmeterol, 100 micrograms, on the physiological and inflammatory responses to inhaled allergen and compared these with the effects of a single dose of beclomethasone, 500 micrograms, and of placebo. Ei...

Long-acting beta2-adrenoceptor agonists such as salmeterol reduce airway responsiveness for at least 12 h, but this effect seems to decrease with regular use. We evaluated the time-course of the protective effects of salmeterol on methacholine-induced bronchoconstriction, its modulation by inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and its influence on asthma control. Thirty two subjects (13 males and 19 fe...

Appreciable numbers of aspirin-sensitive asthmatic patients have chronic steroid-dependent severe asthmatic symptoms. We report four cases of aspirin-sensitive asthmatics who had mild to severe asthmatic symptoms, whose methacholine PC20 level ranged from 0.6 to 22 mg/ml at the first visit. The aspirin sensitivity was confirmed by lysine-aspirin bronchoprovocation. After anti-asthmatic medicati...

Background: The methacholine bronchial provocation test is a useful tool for evaluating asthma in patients with normal or near normal baseline lung function. However, the sensitivity of this test is 82∼92% at most. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical usefulness of FEF25-75% in identification of airway hyperresponsiveness in patients with suspected asthmatic symptoms. Methods: ...

BACKGROUND In children with asthma little is known about the direct effect of the bronchoconstrictor and bronchodilator response on the cough threshold, or the relationship between bronchial responsiveness and the cough threshold. A study was undertaken to determine the effect of histamine-induced bronchoconstriction and salbutamol-induced bronchodilatation on the cough threshold in response to...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that smoking asthmatics benefit less from corticosteroid treatment than never-smoking asthmatics. We investigated differences in blood and sputum inflammatory profiles between ex-, current-, and never-smokers and assessed their ICS treatment response after 2-week and 1-year treatment. METHODS We analyzed FEV1, PC20 methacholine and PC20 AMP, (differential) cel...

The renin-angiotensin system is activated in acute severe asthma. Angiotensin II causes bronchoconstriction in mild asthmatics and potentiates methacholine-evoked bronchoconstriction both in vitro and in vivo. To evaluate the effect of angiotensin II on histamine-induced bronchoconstriction, human bronchial rings (n = 6) were obtained from lung tissue at thoracotomy and were prepared in organ b...

BACKGROUND A study was undertaken to investigate the influence of the menstrual cycle on airway responsiveness and beta 2 adrenoceptor function in female asthmatic patients. It has previously been shown that normal women exhibit cyclical changes in beta 2 adrenoceptor function with an increase in beta 2 adrenoceptor density in the luteal phase during the premenstrual period. METHODS Fifteen w...