Airway cold reactivity in patients with chronic bronchitis

Abstract

To investigate cold airway reactivity we observed 88 patients with chronic bronchitis. The cold airway hyperreactivity revealed by cold isocapnic hyperventilation was established to take place in one third of the patients and was represented by a set of clinical symptoms. The severity of subsequent bronchial constriction depended on an initial airway patency, a level of ventilation and the temperature fall during the cold provocation.