Bronchial reactivity in patients undergoing long-term haemodialysis for chronic renal failure

Trapping of neutrophils within the lung occurs in patients undergoing haemodialysis and is also a possible mechanism in the pathogenesis of bronchial hyper-responsiveness. Falls in peak expiratory flow rate occur in most dialysis patients, and some develop overt asthmatic symptoms. To see whether these changes in airway function are secondary to increases in bronchial reactivity during haemodialysis, we therefore performed histamine challenge testing in 6 non-asthmatic patients before and after haemodialysis. No change in reactivity was observed, suggesting that haemodialysis does not commonly result in bronchial hyper-reactivity in non-asthmatic individuals.