Airway Responsiveness to a Bronchodilator Aerosol

Abstract

Changes in airway conductance and forced expiratory flow rates after inhalation of an aerosolized bronchodilator (Bronkometer®) were measured in 75 normal human subjects ranging in age from 20 to 81 years. Of the 75, 48 were men and 27 were women. Sixteen were moderate cigarette smokers. The percentage increases over baseline values for the study group as a whole were as follows: specific airway conductance (SGaw), 23.6 per cent; forced vital capacity (FVC), 0.2 per cent; forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), 2.5 per cent; maximal midexpiratory flow rate (MMEF), 16.2 per cent. The SGaw change was significant at the 0.0001 level, the MMEF at the 0.02 level, but the FVC and FEV1 changes were not significant. The increase in SGaw after bronchodilator was significant for all subgroups when grouped according to age, sex, and smoking habits, except the group of nonsmokers more than 60 years of age, whereas the MMEF increases were only significant for the nonsmokers as a whole and the nonsmokers less than...