In recent years, asthma has been defined primarily as an inflammatory disorder with emphasis on inflammation being the principle underlying pathophysiological characteristic driving airway obstruction and remodelling. Morphological abnormalities of asthmatic airway smooth muscle (ASM), the primary structure responsible for airway obstruction seen in asthma, have long been described, but surpris...

Spirometry has made possible the objective assessment of drugs used in the treatment of asthma. Many studies have been carried out to measure the bronchodilator effect of sympathomimetic amines in adults, but few studies on children have been reported. Lukas (1951) studied 6 asthmatic children between the ages of 11 and 16 years during their symptom-free period, and showed that pulmonary functi...

Asthma, exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, and airway hyper-responsiveness are often found in elite athletes, perhaps as a consequence of their sport or maybe because asthma is a common disorder in young adults. Inhaled beta2-agonists (IBA) are frequently used in elite athletes, but due to regulations introduced by the International Olympic Committee, the use of anti-asthmatic therapy might ...

Deficient production of anti-viral interferons (IFNs) may be involved in causing viral-induced asthma exacerbations. Hence, drugs inducing lung IFN production would be warranted. Azithromycin may reduce asthma exacerbations but its modus operandi is unknown. Here, we investigated if azithromycin induces IFNβ expression in vitro in rhinovirus-infected bronchial epithelial cells from asthmatic do...

Little is known about the anti-asthmatic effects of powerful anti-inflammatory agents such as aspirin-like drugs. We compared the effects of two aspirin-like drugs with different pharmacologic activities, sodium salicylate (SSA) and indomethacin, with the effect of lysine acetylsalicylate (LASA), inhaled 30 min before challenge, on the early and the late asthmatic response induced by a single d...

Purpose: The objective of this study was to formulate and evaluate a matrix microsphere system for simultaneous delivery of two anti-asthmatic drugs Salbutamol sulphate and Theophylline which are often indicated for the management of asthma, their frequent dosing may reduce compliance, thus making a prolonged release formulation necessary. Ethylcellulose was used as a retardant polymer and its ...

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I read with interest the special supplement of Chest containing a symposium titled, “International scope of asthma” (1986; 90:395-845). I would like to add to this information on the treatment of asthma in a developing African country, which was not tackled in this detailed publication. Treatment ofasthma in developing African countries (Table 1) and indeed in other third world countries is inf...

Measurement ofnonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness remains largely a research tool in asthma, and its usefulness in the assessment and management of asthma is poorly defined. We StUdied the relationship of bronchial hyperresponsiveness to the clinical severity of asthma in 54 asthmatic subjects. In order to find out whether measurement of bronchial hyperresponsiveness could be used to pred...