In a study designed to throw light on the natural history of asthma in Ethiopia, 91 patients living at 2500 metres and attending asthma clinics in Addis Ababa underwent spirometric and skinprick testing. Only eight had had symptoms of asthma before the age of 16. Sixty two had a history of allergic rhinitis and 16 had a family history of allergic rhinitis; 33 had a family history of asthma. In ...

The incidence of anaphylaxis is under-reported. Children with asthma are frequently atopic and prone to allergic reactions. Parents and clinicians may attribute wheeze of rapid onset to acute severe asthma, rather than recognising an anaphylactic event. Two cases of fatal anaphylaxis are reported who were initially diagnosed as acute severe asthma, and responded poorly to bronchodilator treatme...

Concern has been expressed about the increasing use of nebulised bronchodilators at home by patients with airflow obstruction.1 Both angina2 and supraventricular tachycardia3 have been reported in patients during such treatment in hospital, where nebulisation is usually achieved with oxygen. No data have been available, however, on the cardiac effects of bronchodilators delivered by air driven ...

Although tremendous progress has been made in the understanding of Bronchial Asthma (BA) over the past decade, asthma remains a frequently encountered challenging condition for the physicians in the health care locale. Inflammation is distinguished as the most important event in the pathogenesis and the knowledge that asthma is an inflammatory disorder has become elementary to our explanation o...

Mortality from asthma in England and Wales has remained unchanged for at least 20 years, even in the age group 15-44. Yet in those 20 years "modern" drugs have been introduced for the treatment of asthma, such as beta 2 agonist bronchodilators and corticosteroids. Why do patients still die? Detailed review of the circumstances of 90 deaths from asthma showed that a few were inevitable but that ...

The incidence and severity of asthma continue to rise worldwide. β-agonists are the most commonly prescribed therapeutic for asthma management but have less efficacy for some subsets of asthmatic patients and there are concerns surrounding the side effects from their long-term persistent use. The demand to develop novel asthma therapeutics highlights the need for a standardized approach to effe...

BACKGROUND The purpose was to assess tolerance to terbutaline after daily use of long-acting beta2- agonist (LABA) and further to evaluate two designs of reversibility test widely used in research and clinic in order to demonstrate tolerance. METHODS Twenty-eight asthmatics were given daily LABA in 12 weeks and were randomized to challenge test and either conventional reversibility test with ...

Changes in ventilatory capacity during the work shift were studied in workers exposed to tea dust in tea-packing plants, wood dust in two furniture factories, and virtually no dust in an inoperational power station. The FEV1 and FVC in workers exposed to dust were found to decline during the work shift by a small but significant volume. The MMFR, Vmax 50% and Vmax 75% were to variable to displa...

Reactive airway dysfunction syndrome (RADS) is a variant of irritant-induced asthma that develops in subjects without prior bronchoobstructive disease, following high-level exposure to nonimmunogenic irritants. Recommended maintenance treatment for RADS is not different from asthma. But in some cases, severe symptoms may persist despite the bronchodilators and corticosteroids. We describe the f...