Airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness

Airway hyperresponsiveness is an important feature of clinical asthma. This means that asthmatic patients will develop bronchoconstriction after inhaling a smaller concentration of a bronchoconstrictor agonist (usually 10-100 times less) than is needed to induce the same degree of bronchoconstriction in nonasthmatic subjects. Airway hyperresponsiveness is not only an objective measurement which can distinguish asthmatic from normal subjects, but also the degree of airway hyperresponsiveness is related to the severity of asthma, and to the amount of treatment needed to optimally control symptoms.