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Airway response independent of inflammation Markers of airway inflammation are not linked to airway responsiveness to challenge in asthma patients with well-controlled disease receiving inhaled corticosteroids, claim the authors of a recent study. Previous research has shown that airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma patients who have never received steroid therapy is related to markers of airway inflammation - inflammatory eosinophils in sputum for asthma education resources asthma cold weather example. The correlation has not been described in asthmatics receiving inhaled corticosteroids, however. Dr J Leuppi and colleagues from University of Sydney, Australia, investigated airway hyper-responsiveness and airway inflammation markers in 31 patients with stable asthma. Participants were subjected to a "direct" challenge with mannitol and an "indirect" challenge with histamine. Their resulting forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), peak expiratory flow (PEF), asthma cold weather asthma cold weather exhaled nitric oxide and proportion of inflammatory eosinophils in sputum was then measured. The researchers found that around half of the patients exhibited airway hyper-responsiveness to mannitol while 11 patients were hyper-responsive to histamine. The percentage drop in FEV1 and cumulative dose of both agents correlated, but neither dose-response ratio was related to basic lung function, exhaled nitric oxide, proportion of eosinophils in sputum or dose of inhaled asthma products asthma cold weather corticosteroids. Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, the authors conclude, "In subjects with well-controlled asthma, taking inhaled steroids, there was no relationship between airway inflammation, measured either by sputum eosinophils or exhaled nitric oxide, and airway responsiveness measured by either histamine or mannitol." They add that the slight increase in response to mannitol warrants further investigation, however. Source: European Respiratory Journal, September 2001 Provided by: Health pictures on asthma asthma cold weather Media Ltd
