Chest
Clinical Investigations: AsthmaVocal Cord Dysfunction Induced by Methacholine Challenge Testing
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The institutional review board approved this study protocol, and each patient signed an informed consent for participation in the study. Three groups of patients were enrolled. The first group consisted of asymptomatic control subjects who had been recruited from among active-duty Army personnel and were able to complete the Army 2-mile run in > 75% of the minimum standard. These subjects were required to have normal baseline spirometry and FVL values prior to enrollment. The second group
Results
A total of 34 patients were enrolled in the protocol. The VCD group (n = 10) consisted of two men and eight women with an average age (± SD) of 31.1 ± 15.6 years. The majority of patients had symptoms of exertional dyspnea as their presenting complaint prior to receiving a diagnosis of VCD. Two other patients had a history of poorly controlled asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease. The demographics for each patient are shown in Table 1. The EIA group (n = 12) consisted of four men and
Discussion
VCD is a well-recognized cause of dyspnea, wheezing, and inspiratory stridor. Numerous case series and anecdotal reports describe how frequently VCD is incorrectly diagnosed and patients are treated for asthma. It becomes very important for the clinician to document the presence of airway hyperresponsiveness to help differentiate between VCD and asthma. However, the extent to which these two syndromes overlap has not been investigated previously. Our present study directly examined vocal cord
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The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as reflecting the opinion of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.
MAJ Perkins was awarded the 2000 CHEST Foundation Young Investigator Award, at Chest 2000, San Francisco, CA, October 22 to 26, 2000.