[The physiological basis of the compensatory-adaptive significance of expiratory bronchospasm]

A purposeful analysis of home and foreign literature has been made, its results being inconsistent with generally accepted notion of a bronchial spasm as a pathogenetic sign and so impossible to be logically interpreted. The analysis supports the supposition on the possibility of the manifestation of the expiratory bronchial spasm as a compensatory-adaptative mechanism directed to increase the intrathoracic pressure, alveolar-capillary diffusion of oxygen and oxygenation of the aerated blood in the case of hypoxemia. Results of examination of 30 miners with the expiratory bronchial permeability in the presence of the hypoxic and load-induced hypoxemia give grounds to confirm existence of the breathing regulation mechanism and to elaborate a differential approach for estimation of the bronchial spasm in patients with pulmonological diseases.