The Korean journal of internal medicine
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Korean J. Intern. Med. · Jan 1989
A study of the bronchial provocation test with methacholine in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis.
Bronchial hyperreactivity is a characteristic feature of bronchial asthma. Recent respiratory infections, allergic rhinitis, atopic family history, pulmonary tuberculosis, pulmonary sarcoidosis, cystic fibrosis, and farmer's lung have also been demonstrated to have bronchial hyperreactivity to inhaled methacholine. It is not known if pulmonary tuberculosis can cause nonspecific bronchial hyperreactivity and what the mechanism would be. ⋯ The mean baseline FEV1 of positive responders was 71.40 +/- 17.39%, and that of negative responders was 110.18 +/- 17.65% (p less than 0.05). There were no significant differences in serum IgE and peripheral eosinophil count between positive and negative responders. We found that active pulmonary tuberculosis would increase the nonspecific bronchial response with methacholine, and the mechanism of the bronchial hyperreactivity in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis may not be related to an immunologic mechanism but may be related to the stimulating receptors.