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By constructing cumulative dose-response curves to inhaled carbachol in 12 normal and 17 asthmatic subjects with comparable baseline specific airway conductance, we have shown that there were wide variations among subjects in the dose of carbachol needed to cause a 25 per cent decrease in specific airway conductance (bronchial sensitivity) and in the slopes of the curves (bronchial reactivity). Furthermore, there was no significant correlation between these 2 characteristics of the bronchial response to carbachol. The mean dose-response curves of the asthmatic and the normal subjects were widely divergent, indicating that the asthmatic subjects differed from normal subjects more in terms of bronchial reactivity than in bronchial sensitivity. This suggests that different mechanisms determine the sensitivity and reactivity of the bronchial tree, and that hyper-reactivity is the main feature of the asthmatic response. Both should be assessed when the bronchial response to bronchoconstrictor agents is measured.
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
August 1967,
The American review of respiratory disease,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
January 1979,
Journal of applied physiology: respiratory, environmental and exercise physiology,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
September 1986,
Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
September 1984,
Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
March 1992,
The European respiratory journal,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
March 1989,
Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985),
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
November 1984,
The American review of respiratory disease,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
October 2002,
The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
August 1990,
Australian and New Zealand journal of medicine,
J Orehek, and
P Gayrard, and
A P Smith, and
C Grimaud, and
J Charpin
December 1998,
Respirology (Carlton, Vic.),
