HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jang, A-S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jang, A-S.

Dyspnoea perception during clinical remission of atopic asthma

Dept of Internal Medicine, Cheju National University College of Medicine, Jeju, Korea

To the Editor:

I read with interest the paper by van den Toorn et al. 1 reporting dyspnoea perception during clinical remission of atopic asthma. The authors found that there was no difference in dyspnoea perception between remission patients and asthmatics, and they suggested that physical and psychological factors may play a role in the apparent absence of symptoms.

Recently, van der Woude et al. 2 showed that there was no difference in the perception of dyspnoea or an increase in reactivity of the airways during methacholine provocation as compared to placebo during maintenance treatment with long-acting ß₂-agonists at a high dose. We have previously reported that inhalation of short-acting ß₂-agonists decreases dyspnoea, but increases perception of dyspnoea induced by a resistive load in asthma 3.

With respect to the difference in results, I suggest that both a local and a central effect on perception of asthma are important. The perception of asthma involves a number of higher neural centres in the central processing of sensations related to chest wall mechanics, the effort of breathing, bronchoconstriction and airway sensitivity. Therefore, future studies containing all variables related to dyspnoea may provide an answer to dyspnoea perception in asthma.

References

1. Van den Toorn LM, Overbeek SE, Prins JB, Hoogsteden HC, De Jongste JC. Dyspnoea perception during clinical remission of atopic asthma. Eur Respir J 2002;19:1047–1050.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. van der Woude HJ, Aalbers R. Unaltered perception of dyspnoea during treatment with long-acting ß₂-acting agonists. Eur Respir J 2001;18:269–271.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Jang AS, Choi IS. Increased perception of dyspnea by inhalation of short acting ß₂ agonist in patients with asthma of varying severity. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2000;84:79–83.[ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jang, A-S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jang, A-S.