Bronchial hyper-responsiveness: a technical update

Bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) is often regarded as a 'hallmark' of asthma, and bronchoprovocation testing is frequently performed to support a diagnosis of asthma. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) and American Thoracic Society (ATS) have recently updated their technical standards and guidelines for performing methacholine challenge testing (MCT), the most commonly performed clinical test of BHR.

To review the updated guidelines and discuss the various changes and their potential impact on clinicians.

We performed a systematic review of references identified using Medline and hand searches of identified articles.

The new ERS and ATS guidelines recommend that MCT be performed using tidal breathing, not deep inspirations with breath holding, that results be reported as the PD20 (cumulative dose causing a 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1]), rather than PC20 (concentration causing a 20% fall in FEV1), and that manufacturers of nebulizers and other delivery systems provide performance characteristics to allow calculation of PD20 values. Our preliminary survey found that the new guidelines are only slowly being adopted.

Clinicians should be aware that recommended BHR testing methods, particularly for MCT, have changed. As a result, they should anticipate that test outcomes will increasingly be reported in terms of PD20, which will facilitate longitudinal assessment of their patients. Compliance with the new guidelines will increase the sensitivity of MCT in mild and asymptomatic asthmatics.