RATIONALE Airway hyperresponsiveness to adenosine monophosphate (AMP) has been validated as a surrogate marker for airway inflammation. We wished to know whether an abbreviated challenge at the final threshold dose would produce the same fall in FEV1 as a full, conventional dose-response challenge. METHODS Seventeen patients with mild-to-moderate asthma (mean FEV1, 75.5% predicted) attended f...

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness is currently defined as an increase in sensitivity to a wide variety of airway narrowing stimuli. Most patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit such an enhanced sensitivity. In asthma, in particular, this hypersensitivity is accompanied by excessive degrees of airway narrowing. This raises the question as to whether measures of ...

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is a key feature of asthma and may be measured by direct methacholine challenge or indirect adenosine monophosphate (AMP) challenge. We performed a retrospective analysis of our database (n = 487) of patients with asthma with the aim first, to compare methacholine and AMP challenge as screening tools, and second, to identify any relationships between BHR and ...

to the severity of pulmonary involvement assessed clinically and radiologically, and with those found in asthmatic children and those with a history of wheezy bronchitis in early childhood. In patients with CF, bronchial lability was found even in those with minimal pulmonary involvement. The lability was due not only to bronchoconstriction but to a dilatation which was greater than occurs in n...

Wheezing during infancy has been linked to early loss of pulmonary function. We prospectively investigated the relation between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and progressive impairment of pulmonary function in a cohort of asthmatic infants followed until age 9 years. We studied 129 infants who had had at least three episodes of wheezing. Physical examinations, baseline lung function tests...

BACKGROUND In asthmatic patients methacholine or histamine challenge may result in more rapid and shallow breathing. Bronchoconstriction can also be associated with changes in the pattern of breathing. However, few studies, particularly in patients with asthma, have investigated the possibility that changes in the pattern of breathing may precede the onset of bronchoconstriction. METHODS Eigh...

the link between allergic rhinitis and asthma is well known. bronchial hyperreactivity (bhr) may be present in rhinitis. the present study was aimed to compare airway responses in patients  with rhinitis symptoms alone following exercise challenge, and to  determine relationship of two different respiratory function tests. 98 subjects with rhinitis were investigated by spirometry and impulse os...