[The nature of chronic asthmatic bronchitis]

In order to study the nature of chronic asthmatic bronchitis, we compared the clinical features of patients with chronic asthmatic bronchitis, bronchial asthma and simple chronic bronchitis. We also measured FEV1 on these patients before and after inhaling 1% isoproterenol aerosol as well as after administration of oral prednisone (40 mg/day) for a week. The results showed that there was little difference in terms of precipitating factors, attacking features, premonitory symptoms, developing course and relieving measures between the patients with chronic asthmatic bronchitis and bronchial asthma. The improved percentage of FEV1 (more than 15%) on the patients with chronic asthmatic bronchitis after inhalation of bronchodilator aerosol and administration of oral prednisone showed no significant difference from that of bronchial asthma. We suggest that the former term be replaced by the term of chronic bronchitis associated with asthma. It can probably avoid the confusion on the diagnosis of chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma.