BACKGROUND The Tasmanian Asthma survey (TAS) and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) have used questionnaires to measure the prevalence of asthma in adults and children. We have investigated the validity of these questionnaires by comparing response to questionnaire with a physician assessment of asthma status in the past 12 months. METHODS Ninety-three adults...

bronchial hyperresponsiveness using methacholine and adenosine monophosphate: relationship to asthma severity and (2)-receptor genotype. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2000; 162:1318–1322 8 Koskela HO, Hyvärinen L, Brannan JD, et al. Responsiveness to three bronchial provocation tests in patients with asthma. Chest 2003; 124:2171–2177 9 Hunter CJ, Brightling CE, Woltmann G, et al. A comparison of th...

Asthma is the most frequent occupational lung disease. The diagnosis of occupational asthma, defined as variable airways narrowing, causally related to exposure in the working environment to specific airborne dusts, gases, vapours or fumes, needs to be confirmed by objective means. This article reviews the different steps of investigation which are: history, pulmonary function tests, immunologi...

BACKGROUND Chronic urticaria (CU) is a skin disorder characterized by long-lasting release of histamine, and sometimes leukotrienes, from both mast cells and basophils. Although both these substances are potent inductors of contraction of airway smooth muscle, pulmonary function and airway hyperresponsiveness have not been systematically investigated in patients with CU. OBJECTIVE To assess p...

There have been few longitudinal studies of bronchial responsiveness. We wanted to assess the long-term variability and associations of bronchial responsiveness in the general population. Spirometry, bronchial provocation tests, skin-prick tests for allergy, and respiratory symptom questionnaires were repeated every 4 months, for 2 years (August 1987-August 1989), in 122 volunteers recruited fr...

To validate the prevalence rate of symptoms of asthma produced by the phase I ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) study, hypertonic saline challenge test was carried out during the phase II study at a year after the phase I study. For the phase II study, six middle schools from three cities in the phase I study were selected. Finally, 499 children who responded to b...

We have read the recent paper by BAcKER and coworkers [1] in which they confirm findings of previous surveys that there is a considerable overlap in bronchial responsiveness between asthmatics and non-asthmatics. Most of these surveys have used a fixed threshold level as a positive test criterion, for instance PC 20 FEV 1 $8 g·l methacholine. However, several studies [2, 3] show that bronchial ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the safety of the tracheal auscultation method for measuring bronchial hyperresponsiveness in healthy unsedated children aged less than 4 years and to establish a range of normal bronchial hyperresponsiveness values. POPULATION AND METHODS The study population consisted of healthy children aged between 6 months and 4 years. A methacholine bronchial provocation test was adm...