Influence of asthmatic and rhinitic symptomatology duration on bronchial responsiveness to histamine.

Our Study aimed to investigate the influence of the time in years elapsed from the onset of symptoms on bronchial nonspecific responsiveness in rhinitic and asthmatic patients. The study was performed on 83 asthmatic patients and on 46 patients with allergic rhinopathy. The beginning of the symptoms and years of asthmatic or rhinitic history were particularly investigated. A histamine challenge was performed. The dose of histamine producing at 20% change in FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) was calculated from the individual semilogarithmic dose-response curve (PD20). Bronchial responsiveness to histamine showed wide variability in subjects of two groups, and an overlap of the distribution curves was observed between asthmatic and rhinitic patients. A significant relationship (p less than 0.01) between the years elapsed from the onset of symptoms and bronchial responsiveness to histamine was observed in each group of patients. We noticed that the number of the years passed heightened the bronchial responsiveness to histamine in both groups of patients.