Abstract :
Background: Asthma is an age old disease with breathlessness and wheezing as a part of its clinical manifestations. Adrenergic drugs are also used as bronchodilators as they have a fast action. They are also useful in improving the mucilary transport and in the reduction in the release of inflammatory mediators.
Materials and Methods: Sympathetic and parasympathetic mechanisms for airway calibre control were tested on 80 patients above the age of 18 years with bronchial asthma using salbutamol (beta 2 androgenic drug) and ipratropium bromide (anticholinergic drug).
Results: The base line values in our study, of the smokers and non-smokers on Day 1, where Salbutamol was given as the primary drug with Ipratropium as the second drug showed a significant difference in the FEV1, FVC and PEFR values, while there was no significant difference in the FEV1/FVC ratio. After giving salbutamol to the maximum effect, in comparison to the base line, there was a considerable improvement in all the values in both the smokers and non-smokers. But on giving Ipratropium, there was no further substantial improvement in the values in the non-smokers, but a significant improvement was seen among the smokers. On day two, there was a significant improvement in the FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and PEFR values compared to the base line values, and on giving salbutamol, there was a substantial increase in the expiration volume in both smokers and non-smokers.
Conclusions: In case of smoker asthmatics, a combination therapy of Salbutamol and Ipratropium is more useful.
Keyword :
Salbutamol, Ipratropium, Bronchodilator, Pulmonary function, Smokers, Nonsmokers.