Cough productivity and viscoelastic properties of tracheobronchial secretion in asthmatic patients during monotherapy with salbutamol, ipratropium and flunizoiide

Abstract

The investigation of arbitrary cough productivity and viscoelastic properties of tracheobronchial secretion was performed in 90 asthmatics and 30 healthy volunteers. A 12-day monitoring of these parameters responding to monotherapy with inhaled Salbutamol, Ipratropium bromide and Flunizolide was performed in 37 asthmatic patients. Tracheobronchial content was obtained with the help of the original “pharyngeal trap” . Spontaneous cough productivity was calculated from the ratio of obtained secretion volume to number of cough jerks and peak expiratory flow (PEF). Viscoelastic properties of secretion were defined according to the secretion thread relaxation time. The cough productivity and tracheobronchial secretion viscoelastic properties in the bronchial asthma patients were higher than in healthy people and reached maximum values in moderate asthma. The Salbutamol treatment decreased cough productivity up to the 12-th day without considerable change of secretion viscoelastic properties. The usage of Ipratropium bromide did not affect these indices. Flunisolide inhalations were accompanied by significant depression of cough productivity from the 4-th day of treatment. The bronchial secretion viscolastic properties rose to the 4—8-th day of treatment and then returned gradually to the initial level.