Bronchial hyperirritability: Interrelation with the type 1 bronchial allergy in the physiopathogenesis of the...

Bronchial hyperirritability in asthma is analyzed, putting special emphasis on its components (broncholability, bronchoreactivity and bronchoconstrictor cough reflexes), as well as on the most widely used current methodology to study it. Interrelations between hyperirritability and bronchopulmonary allergy are analyzed, as well as the way they can be measured and etiopathogenic conclusions are inferred, which help us to understand the different clinical responses of asthmatics. Furthermore, the careful evaluation of factors altering bronchial irritability in asthmatics and the decisive influence of bronchopulmonary allergy upon the appearance, maintenance and aggravation of hyperirritability, give us the necessary information to suggest the basis of the most logical treatment of asthmatic patients, after the patient's peculiar disease has been carefully evaluated by means of methods presently available.