Bronchial provocation tests in etiologic diagnosis of asthma

Several methods of bronchial challenging have been described in literature. The comparison of the results obtained in different departments is, of course, very difficult. The Authors have been interested in the standardization of inhalation challenge techniques and they present in this work their method and the results obtained. The standardized method has a good specificity, because of the agreement between B.P.T. and other diagnostic tests. The bronchial reaction generally developes after the exposition to low doses of allergen extract, and this confirms the specificity of the method. Its precision, depending on the standardization of allergen extract activity by RAST and of inhalation procedures, is good. The reproducibility is of 100 per cent. The safety is high (rare untword reactions).

this standardized method of bronchial challenging is useful in etiologic diagnosis of asthma.