title: Bronchial hyperresponsiveness and quality of life in asthmatics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of Life (QoL) measurements are more responsive to clinically significant changes that are not evaluated by conventional clinical measures.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and QoL in asthmatic patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  394 patients underwent clinical follow-up, pulmonary function tests and the methacholine challenge test (MCHt), and completed the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ).
  
  
  RESULTS
  200 patients had a positive MCHt and in 194 it was negative. For all 32 items, asthmatic patients had a median value of 4.7 (4.2-5.9) compared to 5.6 (4.7-6.3) in patients with negative MCHt (p < 0.01). For physical activities, patients with positive MCHt showed a median value of 5.0 (4.5-6.0) compared to 5.7 (4.8-6.3) in patients with negative MCHt (p < 0.05). Median scores of 12 items of symptoms and 5 items of emotions were significantly lower in patients with positive MCHt [4.5 (3.7-5.8) and 5.1 (4.2-6.1)] than in patients with negative MCHt [5.5 (4.4-6.1) and 6.3 (5.2-6.9), respectively, (p < 0.01)]. For items of environmental stimuli the median score was 4.7 (3.7-5.9) in patients with positive MCHt, being significantly lower than in patients with negative MCHt [5.4 (4.2-6.4), p < 0.05]. Patients with positive MCHt had lower values of QoL than patients with negative MCHt.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QoL changes may be more sensitive than evaluation of BHR. The measurement of Qol may be important because it enables us to characterize patients who could be candidates eventually to a pharmacological treatment for BHR because they have an impaired QoL.
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Pathophysiology Center, Department of Internal Medicine and Aging, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy. griccioni@hotmail.com
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Riccioni
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: D'Orazio
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Ilio
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Della Vecchia
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ballone
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Menna
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Guagnano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D013147:Spirometry; D014797:Vital Capacity