Effect of antiallergic agents and bronchial hypersensitivity in short-term bronchial asthma

The effect of antiallergic agents with no antihistamine activity on bronchial hypersensitivity to histamine inhalation was studied in 37 asthmatic patients. Improvement in bronchial hypersensitivity to histamine was observed in 11 out of the 24 (46 percent) antiallergic agents-treated patients, but in none of the 13 (0 percent) untreated patients. The 11 patients whose bronchial hypersensitivity improved with antiallergic agents consisted of eight short-term cases of less than one year's duration and three long-term cases of more than one year's duration. Thus, improvement in bronchial hypersensitivity was observed in 8 of 11 (73 percent) short-term cases, and 3 of 13 (23 percent) long-term cases. A significant improvement in %FEV1 was observed only in the short-term cases treated with antiallergic agents, but the improvement of baseline FEV1 did not seem to explain entirely the improvement in bronchial hypersensitivity seen. The decrease in bronchial hypersensitivity was in parallel with that of other asthmatic symptoms. These results suggest that antiallergic agents might be most effective in the treatment of asthmatic patients with a short-term disease duration.