Effects of inhaled sympathomimetics on obstructive response to respiratory heat loss.

To investigate the influence of inhaled sympathomimetics on the obstructive response to airway cooling, we had six asymptomatic atopic asthmatics perform eucapnic hyperventilation with frigid air at various levels of ventilation after pretreatment with aerosols of metaproterenol or placebo in a random blind fashion. In control experiments, eucapnic hyperventilation produced a progressive decrease in 1-s forced expiratory volume in a stimulus-response fashion as the level of ventilation rose in successive challenges. Metaproterenol did not produce an all-or-none blockade, but rather a parallel shift in the stimulus-response curve so that its protective effects could be overcome by increasing the stimulus. There was no effect on respiratory heat loss. These results explain, in a quantitative fashion, why a treatment schedule that permits a person with asthma to perform a given exercise task without difficulty becomes ineffective as the thermal burden or severity of the task increases.