Chest
Life-threatening Cold and Exercise-induced Asthma Potentiated by Administration of Propranolol
Section snippets
CASE 1
A 63-year-old man who smoked and who had essential hypertension, had been taking propranolol 40 mg three times per day for five months prior to his episode of respiratory failure.
On February 17, 1979, while walking briskly uphill to his car into an extremely cold wind (—20° C) he became acutely dyspneic. He was brought to the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center (SPRMC) emergency room where he was noted to be conscious, but too short of breath to speak. The respiratory rate was 40 and pulse 96, blood
DISCUSSION
A positive interaction between exercise and cold air has been demonstrated which markedly augments exercise-induced bronchospasm in asthmatic subjects. Strauss, McFadden and colleagues3 have postulated an explanation of this interaction by quantitating the heat loss from the respiratory mucosa necessary to fully condition inspired air to body temperature and 100 percent humidity. They have shown that the degree of exercise-induced airway obstruction in asthmatics is directly proportional to the
REFERENCES (3)
- et al.
Effect of propranolol on ventilatory function
Am J Cardiol
(1966)