Original article
Effect of atropine on the bronchial response of asthmatic subjects to the inhalation of ultrasonically nebulized distilled water,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-6749(83)90463-3Get rights and content

Abstract

To determine whether atropine provides protection against the bronchoconstriction that develops in asthmatic subjects after inhalation of ultrasonically nebulized distilled water, we exposed six asthmatic patients to this stimulus with and without pretreatment with atropine (0.04 mg/kg). The mean FEV1 decreased from 3.32 to 2.39 L (−28%) without and from 3.49 to 3.18 L (−9%) with atropine. This protective effect was statistically significant (p < 0.05), suggesting that cholinergic pathways are involved in the obstructive response to the inhalation of ultrasonically nebulized distilled water.

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Supported by U.S.P.H.S. SCOR grant HL-15092 of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and by the Italian National Research Council, Special Project on Preventive Medicine, Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease.

☆☆

Presented at the Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Montreal, March 1982.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Medicine.

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