Twelve asthmatic patients received by inhalation for 2 weeks, in a double-blind, cross-over design, beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP; 600 μg/day) plus salbutamol (S; 900 μg/day), or S (900 μg/day) alone. Before and after each treatment course the subjects received intravenous cumulative doses of S up to 200 μg. In basal conditions and immediately before the next dose forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and plasma cyclic AMP (cAMP) were measured. BDP + S treatment increased FEV1 basal values (p < 0.05) whereas inhaled S resulted in unsignificant improvement of ventilatory parameters. The slopes of the dose-response curves of FΕV1 and plasma cAMP to intravenous S were unaffected by the two treatment courses. Our results suggest that DBP + S, differently from S alone, improves ventilatory function in asthmatic patients and that neither S nor S + BDP seem to affect adrenergic function.
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