Asthma, Rhinitis and Atopy Reconsidered

Airways obstruction has been considered to be the sine qua non of asthma. The obstruction may disappear spontaneously or may be relieved by administration of a bronchodilator or one of the corticosteroid drugs. There is also hyperactivity of the airways to bronchial challenge with drugs pharmacologically related to acetylcholine as evidenced by a transient obstructive response. I, with some others, would add eosinophilia as another consistent feature of asthma. Even though tradition has it that symptoms of asthma occur, as indeed they may, when an allergen encounters an antibody in the asthmatic patient, abundant clinical observation indicates that much ongoing . . .