BACKGROUND Chronic cough in babies is often associated with bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR). The objective documentation of BHR in babies is difficult, and acoustic methods have been described (provocative concentration of a substance causing wheeze) for conducting bronchial provocation tests (BPTs). We conducted a study to evaluate automatic computerized wheeze detection (CWD) in determining B...

Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and its inhibitor (PAI-1) are involved in tiisue remodeling and repair processes associated with acute and chronic inflammation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of allergen challenge on concentration of uPA and PAI-1 in induced sputum of house dust mite allergic asthmatics (HDM-AAs). Thirty HDM-AAs and ten healthy persons (HCs)were recruited...

The effect of histamine or methacholine inhalational challenge on breathing patterns and oxygen saturation was investigated in ten stable asthmatic patients. We used the respiratory inductive plethysmograph to record respiratory timing and minute ventilation along with an ear oximeter to measure oxygen saturation (SaO2). As FEV1 fell during the challenge procedure, SaO2 also fell (average 3 per...

We studied regional changes in ventilation and aerosol deposition after histamine challenge in six patients with asthma and two with rhinitis and a history of wheezing. All were known to have bronchial hyperreactivity and all showed an increased response to histamine. Ventilation and aerosol deposition studies, using xenon-133 and an aerosol of sulphur colloid tagged with technetium 99m, were p...

PURPOSE A retrospective investigation of the clinical and radiologic features as well as the bronchoscopic appearance was carried out in patients with endobronchial aspergilloma. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten patients with endobronchial aspergilloma diagnosed by bronchoscopy and histological examination were identified at the Gyeongsang University Hospital of Korea, from May 2003 to May 2009. R...

To determine the validity of ultrasonic nebulization of distilled water (UNDW, "fog") in comparison with methacholine challenge, in the assessment of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) asthma, we evaluated 75 subjects exposed to TDI with work-related respiratory symptoms. Subjects were submitted to bronchial challenge with methacholine at first, thereafter to UNDW inhalation and to specific challenge w...

PURPOSE Dyspnea is not widely utilized as an indicator of asthma provocation despite its universal presentation. We hypothesized that dyspnea severity was proportionate with the lung function decline, methacholine dose-step, and the degree of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR). METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 73 children's bronchial provocation test data with an assessment of dyspnea at ...

BACKGROUND A very weak relationship has been reported between the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients with asthma and their degree of airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), evaluated in terms of sensitivity. However, this relationship still has not been sufficiently explored for bronchial reactivity indices. OBJECTIVES To analyse the relationship between bronchial reactivity and sen...

Asthma is characterized by airway inflammation, airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) and variable air flow obstruction. The diagnosis of asthma, however, is often based upon nonspecific clinical symptoms of cough, wheeze, and shortness of breath. Furthermore, the physical examination and measurements of pulmonary function are often unremarkable in patients with asthma, thereby complicating the di...

Background Aspirin (ASA) hypersensitivity has a complex clinical presentation with three major phenotypes: aspirinexacerbated respiratory disease (AERD; asthma and/or nasal polyps), chronic urticaria and aspirin-induced anaphylaxis. In patients with AERD asthma is often severe and difficult to control. Moreover, NSAID ingestion may provoke life-threatening attack. Thus, diagnosing of ASA hypers...