Chest
Clinical Investigations: Asthma/Broncho-DilatorsRelationship Between Airway Obstruction and Respiratory Symptoms in Adult Asthmatics
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The charts of patients who had been evaluated at the adult asthma clinic of the University of Maryland Hospital between July 1, 1994, and December 31, 1996, were reviewed for inclusion into the study. Patients were excluded from the analysis if they did not have a clinical history compatible with asthma, had a current or past smoking history of >10 pack-years, or were unable to adequately perform spirometry or PEF maneuvers. During the initial clinic visit, all patients underwent a complete
Results
The records of 94 individual patients were reviewed. Of these, 27 were excluded from analysis due to an excessive smoking history (n=21) or incomplete pulmonary function data (n=6). The characteristics of the remaining 67 patients included in this analysis are presented in Table 1. Most patients included in this study were young African-American women. The frequent need for hospital-based asthma care and oral steroid therapy as well as the degree of baseline airway obstruction are indicative of
Discussion
Previous studies have demonstrated a poor relationship between asthma symptoms and objective measures of airway obstruction.3, 4, 5 The present study extends these observations to an urban-based adult population with moderate to severe asthma.
Our data demonstrate that respiratory symptoms and airway obstruction correlate poorly in adult asthmatics. Similar results have been found in prior studies. Ferguson4 recorded daily symptom scores and PEF over eight consecutive 2-week intervals in a
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revision accepted August 13.