[Use of calcium antagonists in therapy of bronchial asthma]

A study was made of the therapeutic efficacy of calcium antagonists (CA) in the treatment of bronchial asthma. It has been shown that CA, particularly nifedipine and verapamil, do not exert, in the course of an acute drug test, any significant effect on bronchial patency. At the same time CA produce an appreciable preventive effect when administered to bronchial asthma patients with the syndrome of bronchial tree hyperreactivity--cold and post-exercise bronchospasm. Special attention is drawn to CA synergism with inhalation sympathomimetics, which lies in the increase of the duration of the bronchodilating action of the latter ones. The paper provides the data concerned with the effective use of CA in multimodality treatment of the patients with associated bronchial asthma and coronary heart disease.