title: Bronchial hypersensitivity in asthmatics in long-term symptom-free state.
abstract: Improvement of asthmatic symptoms was shown to be closely associated with a decrease in bronchial hypersensitivity to histamine inhalation. Thus, the patients' clinical backgrounds were compared between 26 long-term cases whose symptom-free state lasted more than 1 year and 15 short-term cases whose symptom-free state ceased within 1 year. Among backgrounds, only the intrinsic type of asthma was significantly higher in number in the long-term group than in short-term group (65 percent vs 27 percent). The histamine threshold after the patients became symptom-free was significantly higher in the long-term group. In the short-term group, the values of PC20 just before the termination of the symptom-free state were all less than 5,000 mg/L of histamine. However, in the long-term group, the values of the PC20 for the final test were mostly over 5,000 mg/L. Decrease in bronchial hypersensitivity is considered to be a very important aim of therapy in bronchial asthma.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizushima
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oosaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity; D001985:Bronchial Provocation Tests; D005260:Female; D006632:Histamine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006632:Histamine