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Clinical InvestigationsA Screening Test for Airways Reactivity: An Abbreviated Methacholine Inhalation Challenge
Section snippets
METHODS
The study population consisted of 13 asthmatic patients (eight men and five women, 19 to 30 years of age) with a characteristic clinical history of asthma,12 and ten normal control subjects (six men and four women, 21 to 37 years of age) who had no history of asthma, atopy, or allergic rhinitis. No asthmatic patients had taken glucocorticoids or sodium cromolyn for at least four weeks prior to our study, while short-acting methylxanthines, sympathomi-metics, and antihistamines were withheld for
RESULTS
Results of baseline pulmonary function tests in both the normal subjects and asthmatic patients were similar on each of the two study days for the standard and the short methacholine challenge (P > 0.7). Figure 1 shows the relationship between the PD20 FEV1 calculated using the short methacholine challenge test and the PD20 FEV1 measured by the standard methacholine protocol. The correlation by rank order analysis was R = 0.94 (P < 0.001) for all subjects and R = 0.77 (P < 0.01) for the
DISCUSSION
This short methacholine challenge protocol accurately assessed airway hyperreactivity in asthmatic subjects and provided results similar to those obtained with a standard, more lengthy, methacholine inhalation challenge technique. Furthermore, it has several advantages for use as a screening test. It is simple to perform, rapid (6–12 minutes), and requires only routine, inexpensive pulmonary laboratory equipment. The training period for both subjects and technicians is negligible. In even the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Brenda Jordan and Betty Giacomazza for their secretarial assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.
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Supported by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Specialized Center for Research in Pulmonary Diseases Grant HL-14153, and by The Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Grant AI-10304
Manuscript received October 29; revision accepted December 18.