M-cholinolytic action of ipratropium bromide in children suffering from bronchial asthma or chronic pneumonia

Abstract

Forty two children aged from 6 to 15 years (15 children with bronchial asthma and 27 ones with chronic pneumonia) were examined. All the children underwent a clinical inspection, lung function testing and a pharmacological test with ipratropium bromide. The IC50 for M acetylcholine receptors of peripheral blood polymorphnonuclear leucocytes and a simultaneous effect of ipratropium bromide on a stimulated Ca⁺² ion level in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells were studied in 14 children with bronchial asthma and 25 ones with chronic pneumonia.
M-cholinolytic effect of ipratropium bromide on the blood cells was found to appear in bronchial asthma children in less concentration compared with the chronic pneumonia ones. Ipratropium bromide reduced the stimulated calcium ion response of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells and improved the lung function parameters in both the groups. The increase in the lung function values was more in the bronchial asthma children than in chronic pneumonia ones and under the norm al lung maturity than in chronic inflammation under a lung maturity defect. A correlation was noted between the increase in the lung function parameters and the decline of the Ca⁺² ion level in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells stimulated by ipratropium bromide.