OBJECTIVE Overuse of short-acting bronchodilators is internationally recognised as a marker of poor asthma control, high healthcare use and increased risk of asthma death. Young adults with asthma commonly overuse short-acting bronchodilators. We sought to determine the reasons for overuse of bronchodilator inhalers in a sample of young adults with asthma. DESIGN Qualitative study using a pur...

The knowledge and attitude towards asthma, of parents, of 85 asthmatic children was assessed using a 17 item questionnaire. Results showed that 34.1% believed asthma to be contagious, 48.2% of the parents hesitated in referring to their child's illness as asthma. Other commonly held beliefs were that asthma is a life long illness (35.3%); food items are important precipitating factors for acute...

OBJECTIVE Adequate symptom control is a problem for many people with asthma. We asked whether weekly email reports on monitored use of inhaled, short-acting bronchodilators might improve scores on composite asthma-control measures. METHODS Through an investigational electronic medication sensor attached to each participant's inhaler, we monitored 4 months' use of inhaled, short-acting broncho...

This study evaluates the effect of three different bronchodilators (beta 2-adrenergic, anticholinergic and methylxanthine) alone and in randomized sequence, during an exacerbation in thirteen patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dose-response curves were obtained for inhaled salbutamol and inhaled ipratropium bromide. The bronchodilator effect of a perfusion of aminophylline was...

Many therapeutic agents have been employed effectively for the relief of bronchospasm. Preparations in current clinical use have been shown to be more efficacious than older ones, but no single agent has proved entirely satisfactory. Therefore, the present study was undertaken in order to evaluate the bronchodilator properties of three new drugs. As will be demonstrated, extensive preliminary o...

The long-acting inhaled bronchodilators available for use in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) vary in their pharmacological class (β2-adrenergic agonist or antimuscarinic/anticholinergic, alone or combined), durations of action and speed of onset of bronchodilator effect. In the early stages of development of a maintenance bronchodilator, the goals are to identify a molecule with th...

We have shown that the bacteriostatic and bactericidal agents edetic acid and benzaLkonium chloride present in nebuliser solutions may cause bronchoconstriction when inhaled by asthmatic patients and suggested that this may account for some of the pardoxical bronchoconstriction that occurs after inhalation ofnebulised bronchodilator aerosols. ' As antibacterial agents may be removed from nebuli...

One of the major goals of bronchodilator therapy in patients with COPD is to decrease airflow limitation in the airways and, as a consequence, improve dyspnea and exercise tolerance. The focus of this systematic review is to assess the effects of treatment with beta-agonists, anticholinergics, and theophyllines on dyspnea, and steady-state and incremental exercise capacity. Thirty-three, double...

Aminophylline and isoprenaline, two drugs widely used in the managem2nt of asthma, have a pulmonary vasodilator action as well as a bronchodilator action. If regional pulmonary vasoconstriction in poorly ventilated parts of the lungs is a significant compensatory phenomenon in asthma, the effects of administration of these agents on gas exchange would depend on the relative magnitudes of bronch...

We have shown that the bacteriostatic and bactericidal agents edetic acid and benzaLkonium chloride present in nebuliser solutions may cause bronchoconstriction when inhaled by asthmatic patients and suggested that this may account for some of the pardoxical bronchoconstriction that occurs after inhalation ofnebulised bronchodilator aerosols. ' As antibacterial agents may be removed from nebuli...