VENTILATION HETEROGENEITY AND AIRWAY HYPERRESPONSIVENESS

Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is an important feature of asthma and has been linked to lung ventilation heterogeneity. In this issue, Downie and colleagues report on a study to establish whether this ventilation heterogeneity is associated with AHR, but independently of airway inflammation. Results showed that baseline ventilation heterogeneity is a strong predictor of AHR and independent of airway inflammation in asthma. After treatment with inhaled steroids, the relationship persisted and this suggests that normalisation of ventilation heterogeneity could be an outcome of asthma treatment. In the accompanying editorial, Venegas discusses the basis for these interesting findings and concludes that these novel results open up new clinical and basic …