Pathomorphology of the airways in asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways with a characteristic infiltrate of eosinophils, lymphocytes, mast cells, and monocytes in the bronchial epithelium and peribronchial tissue. Bronchial-, bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchoscopic biopsies have proved to be safe and useful techniques for studying the inflammatory processes in the airways, they have contributed to our basic knowledge concerning the pathomechanism of asthma. The data derived from the clinical and experimental studies have made possible to perform an international consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of asthma.