There is some evidence that breathing retraining may be beneficial for patients with asthma, but the mechanism behind this benefit is still unknown. One hypothesis is that individuals can be trained to raise carbon dioxide levels and thereby reverse the bronchoconstrictive effects of hypocapnia and utilize the bronchodilatory effects of hypercapnia. This theory presupposes that individuals with...

The incidence of asthma is increasing worldwide, but morbidity and mortality are decreasing because of improvements in medical care. Although the incidence of severe perioperative bronchospasm is relatively low in asthmatics undergoing anaesthesia, when it does occur it may be life-threatening. The keys to an uncomplicated perioperative course are assiduous attention to detail in preoperative a...

Objective(s) The aims of present study were to elucidate the effect of NaHS as a H2S donor on precontracted rat trachea smooth muscle, role of epithelium and nitric oxide in this action. Materials and Methods Tracheal rings from male adult Wistar rats were isolated and mounted in an organ bath containing Krebs–Henseleit solution under 1.5 g resting tension and contractions were recorded isom...

Olivia J. Larsson, Martijn L. Manson, Magnus Starkhammar, Barbara Fuchs, Mikael Adner, Susanna Kumlien Georén, and Lars-Olaf Cardell Division of ENT Diseases, CLINTEC, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of ENT Disease, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Centre for Allergy Research, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; and Institute for Environmental Medici...

RATIONALE Stable analogs of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) have been proposed as novel line of therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) based on their bronchodilatory and anti-inflammatory effects. We speculated that VIP analogs may provide additional benefits in that they exert vasodilatory properties in the lung, and tested this hypothesis in both ex vivo and in vivo model...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To investigate whether the bronchodilatory effect of deep inspiration is impaired in subjects with COPD. METHODS We measured deep inspiration-induced bronchodilation in 19 patients with COPD and 17 healthy subjects (mean age, 67.8 +/- 7.1 years vs 62.5 +/- 9.3 years, respectively [+/- SEM]). Each subject underwent a series of single-dose methacholine provocations to induce at...