Asthmatics often find that reasonably hard exercise of moderate duration like 6-8 minutes of continuous moderately hard running causes troublesome exercise induced asthma (EIA) while either very brief, intense exercise or very prolonged exercise does not necessarily cause an attack (Fitch et al, 1976). Neither the cause of EIA nor the reasons why some forms of exercise have greater propensity t...

It is well documented that exercise-induced asthma is more pronounced when inspired air is cold and dry rather than warm and humid.' 2 The severity of exercise-induced asthma is closely dependent on loss of respiratory heat, needed to warm and humidify inspired air,3 and it has been suggested that airway cooling is the only stimulus triggering postexercise bronchoconstriction.3-7 We present a c...

BACKGROUND Obese children frequently complain of breathlessness. Asthma and obesity can both contribute to the symptoms during exercise, and this symptom can contribute to a diagnosis of asthma in these children. Despite the high prevalence of obesity few studies have investigated the cardiopulmonary physiology of breathlessness in obese children with a diagnosis of asthma. METHODS In this ca...

Dr Olayemi Fehintola, Department of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; and Professor G E Erhabor, Consultant Chest Physician and Professor of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and President of the Nigerian Thoracic Society. Correspondence to: Dr O F Awopeju. Email: [email protected] Introduction The benefits of exercise cannot be overestimated as phys...

BACKGROUND A fall in FEV(1) of > or =10% following bronchoprovocation (eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation (EVH) or exercise) is regarded as the gold standard criterion for diagnosing exercise induced asthma (EIA) in athletes. Previous studies have suggested that mid-expiratory flow (FEF(50)) might be used to supplement FEV(1) to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis. A study...

BACKGROUND The avoidance of inhaled allergens or tobacco smoke has been known to have favorable effects on asthma control. However, it remains unclear whether other lifestyle-related factors are also related to asthma control. Therefore, a comprehensive study to examine the associations between various lifestyle factors and asthma control was conducted in Japanese asthmatic patients. METHODS ...

Since the calcium antagonists nifedipine and verapamil have been shown to diminish exercise induced asthma, the effect of oral diltiazem, a calcium channel blocker not previously investigated in this context, was studied. Ten patients with bronchial asthma were given 60 mg diltiazem or placebo four hours before the challenge in a double blind, randomised, crossover fashion. Exercise was perform...

RATIONALE Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is an important, but not specific, asthma characteristic. OBJECTIVES We aimed to assess the predictive value of BHR tested by methacholine and exercise challenge at age 10 years for active asthma 6 years later. METHODS From a Norwegian birth cohort, 530 children underwent methacholine challenge and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) test...

BACKGROUND Strenuous physical activity at an elite level is associated with an increased risk for asthma and, in some sports, also prevalence of allergies. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of asthma and allergy among elite swimmers and tennis players and compare airway hyperreactivity to mannitol and exercise. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and one adolescent swimmer...