[Anamnesis, inhalation histamine test and 2 stress tests in the diagnosis of exercise-induced asthma]

32 patients (15 men, 17 women) of between 15 and 28 years of age were examined in a prospective study using a staged histamine test and a running test. A special anamnesis was prepared. Following a methodic preliminary examination two methods of the exercise test were compared with one another in 16 patients based on running freely and on the endless tape ergometer-in the form of a two-stage test with measurement of the heart rate. An anamnestic pointer was seen in each of 7 patients with pronounced bronchial hyperreactivity; in moderate hyperreactivity only 1 out of 9 patients had an anamnestic pointer. In 29 of 43 patients, anamnesis and the result of the exercise test agreed. Of 9 patients with exercise induced asthma, 3 had moderate hyperreactivity and 6 a very pronounced one. Free run and two-stage test on the endless tape yield the same result in respect of exercise induced asthma in all 16 patients.

1. Anamnesis has a good predictive value in respect to exercise induced asthma. 2. This is confirmed: no exercise induced asthma without bronchial hyperreactivity, but the former is not necessarily always a sequence of the latter. 3. It is possible to standardise the running test on the endless tape with definite load and estimation of the efficiency; however, the simple running test in which the patient adjusts the load in accordance with his subjective feeling, is equally valid for arriving at a clinical diagnosis of exercise induced asthma.