Resistance and Blood Gas Tensions in Bronchial Asthma

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Abstract
Eighteen asthmatic patients were studied during acute attack, following bronchodilator therapy and in remission. During the acute attack, there was marked arterial hypoxemia which was attenuated by bronchodilator therapy, but was nevertheless noticeable and persisted during remission. Raw × Vtg and FEV 1 sec were within normal limits. During remission, dynamic compliance was frequency-dependent, and upstream resistance was a sizeable portion of the total measured resistance. It is suggested that arterial hy-poexmia during the attack stage results form uneven distribution of ventilation-perfusion, and that this unevenness persists following bronchodilator therapy and in remission. Since the bulk of the residual resistance is located in the upstream segments, spirometric and body plethysmographic measurements are not seriously affected and, therefore, do not yield values indicative of the effectiveness of therapy

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