Rapid method for measurement of bronchial responsiveness.

A rapid, simple method for measuring bronchial responsiveness to inhaled histamine is described. The method was used to obtain dose response curves in 50 atopic subjects with varying respiratory and nasal symptoms. The cumulative dose of histamine which caused a 20% fall in the one second forced expiratory volume (PD20-FEV1) varied between 0.046 and greater than 3.9 mumol and correlated with the severity of symptoms. The reproducibility of the PD20-FEV1, determined from duplicate measurements in 15 subjects with varying degrees of bronchial responsiveness was found to be satisfactory. When the PD20-FEV1 from this rapid method was compared with that obtained from the dosimeter method no significant difference was found. The dose delivered by this method was shown to be cumulative.