Airway inflammation in asthma and perennial allergic rhinitis. Relationship with nonspecific bronchial responsiveness and maximal airway narrowing

Abstract

Induced sputum is an accurate method to study bronchial inflammation, allowing one to distinguish between rhinitis patients and mildly asthmatic patients. The fact that no relationship was detected between sputum inflammation and BHR suggests that other factors, such as airway remodeling, may be at least partly responsible for BHR in asthma.

Clinical and Demographic Profiles of Patients Diagnosed as Cough Variant Asthma attended at Tertiary Referral Hospital

“…Nevertheless, the accumulating evidence indicates that the pathophysiology is different between CVA and bronchial asthma. The most fundamental physiologic feature is a heightened cough response to methacholine-induced broncho-constriction in CVA, while this response is rather reduced in bronchial asthma 9 . The sensitivity of cough receptors located in the superficial layer of the airway wall is normal in CVA as well as bronchial asthma, but heightened in atopic cough.…”

Diagnostic Value of Sputum Eosinophil Counts in Patients with Cough Variant Asthma

“…In this current study, study patients is divided into two category on the basis of the eosinophil count in sputum as follows, sputum eosinophil count >3%, and ≤ 3% category, it was observed that 90.0% populations had sputum eosinophil count >3% and 10% had ≤ 3% sputum eosinophil count. Alvarez et al 6 have reported that an increase of eosinophil count (>3.2%) in induced sputum has been observed in three out of six patients with chronic cough and bronchial hyperresponsiveness, who might be given a diagnosis of CVA 5 . Ayik et al 2 mentioned that sputum eosinophilia greater than 3.0% is present in 33.3% patients and the patients have been diagnosed as eosinophilic bronchitis.…”

“…It has been considered a precursor 3 and a variant form of classic asthma with typical symptoms of wheezing and dyspnea 4 . Several studies have examined mechanistic differences between CVA and classic asthma [5][6][7] .…”

Mannitol versus hypertonic saline

“…Sputum samples, obtained from HS and mannitol, were processed as described 11,12 and blindly evaluated. Samples were deemed adequate for cytological analysis when macrophages were observed and squamous cell contamination was under 20%.…”