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. 1987 Feb;42(2):100–104. doi: 10.1136/thx.42.2.100

Airway responsiveness in wheezy infants: evidence for functional beta adrenergic receptors.

A Prendiville 1, S Green 1, M Silverman 1
PMCID: PMC460631  PMID: 2829374

Abstract

The effect of nebulised salbutamol on the bronchial response to nebulised histamine was studied in five wheezy infants aged 3-12 months. The response to doubling concentrations of up to 8 g/l of histamine was assessed by the change in the maximum flow at FRC (VmaxFRC), measured by flow-volume curves produced during forced expiration with a pressure jacket. The concentration of histamine required to provoke a 30% fall in VmaxFRC (PC30) was measured. All of the infants responded to low concentrations of histamine during control tests before and after nebulised saline (mean PC30 1.07 and 0.51 g/l). On a separate day there was a similar response to histamine before salbutamol (PC30 0.57 g/l), but after salbutamol the response was completely abolished up to the maximum concentration of histamine in all subjects (PC30 greater than 8 g/l). Thus wheezy infants have highly effective beta 2 adrenoceptors in intrathoracic airways.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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