[The treatment of bronchial asthma with powdered salbutamol and powdered beclomethasone dipropionate]. / Tratamentul astmului bronsic cu Salbutamol pulbere si Beclometazon propionat pulbere.

The active bronchodilators and anti-inflammatory drugs used as dry powder in inhalatory treatment of bronchial asthma represent an important advance during last years. In this way the inconveniences of pressurized aerosols treatment where the drugs are only partially inhaled as well as severe side-effects of systemic corticotherapy are avoided. The bronchodilator drug Ventodisk and the antiinflammatory Becodisks as dry powder are given by inhalation with a special device (Diskhaler). The study deals with a group of 60 subjects with moderate and severe forms of bronchial asthma out of which 20 were treated by Ventodisk associated to Becodisks and other two groups of 20 subjects each treated during the same interval time with only Becodisks and Ventodisk respectively. The clinical results after two months treatment were much better in the first group of subjects (85% good results) in comparison to Becodisks (75%) and Ventodisk (60%) treated cases. One can state in conclusion that the association of Ventodisk to Becodisks leads to very good results in basic treatment of bronchial asthma.

[The bronchodilator action of berodual spray compared to fenoterol and ipratropium bromide sprays]. / Actiunea bronhodilatatoare a berodualului spray în comparatie cu fenoterol si opratropium bromid spray.

Berodual (Duovent) was tested in 40 bronchial asthma patients in comparison with a similar group treated with fenoterol. The results of FEV1.0 investigation showed no significant differences: increases of 15% were noted in both groups. In two other groups (40 bronchial asthma cases each) treated with berodual and Atrovent, respectively FEV1.0 values were significantly different: increased by 5% in the Atrovent group, and by 15% in the berodual one. Berodual showed the advantage of inducing the same strong bronchodilation of similar duration, though applied in doses by far smaller than fenoterol or Atrovent. A diminution of the clinical evolution score from 3 to 0.7, an increase by 15%; in FEV1.0, and no changes as regards the immunological tests (IgA, IgG, IgM, Clq, C3) were obtained in the group treated with berodual for 4 weeks.

Humoral immune response in human pulmonary tuberculosis: antibodies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis polysaccharide, protein and glycolipid antigens.

Sera from 67 tuberculosis patients and 30 healthy subjects have been analyzed for the presence of specific antibodies against polysaccharide, protein and glycolipid antigens from H37Rv strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The results proved the advantages of using the glycolipid antigens in diagnosing tuberculosis as well as the relationship between the antibodies level and the extension of the pulmonary tuberculous lesions.

[Broncho-Vaxom in the treatment of chronic pulmonary lesions]. / Broncho-Vaxom în tratamentul afectiunilor pulmonare cronice.

Two hundred patients with various chronic pulmonary diseases were treated with the bacterial lysate Broncho-Vaxom (BV) in addition to conventional treatment, or alone, over a period of 2 years. The efficacy of BV was assessed ob the basis of clinical symptoms (dyspnoea, cough, expectoration, fever and bronchial rales), pulmonary function, number of relapses and immune status, in particular serum immunoglobulins A, G and M. The results demonstrated the efficacy of BV in the treatment and prevention of chronic pulmonary disease. In patients treated with BV, clinical symptoms improved significantly compared to controls, incidence of infectious episodes was reduced and impaired immune functions were restored. BV was generally well tolerated.

Specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in pulmonary tuberculosis patients sera. Note I.

206 sera collected from different groups of subjects were analyzed by immunoenzymatic methods regarding the content of Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens. The results underlined that two assays offered improved serologic diagnosis of tuberculosis over a single antibody test. BCG vaccination interferes with serologic tests for tuberculosis when polyspecific antibodies or mixture of common and specific antigens are used as immunologic reagents. A mycobacterial antigens circadian variation in correlation with vesperal fever in tuberculous patients was not revealed. The mycobacterial antigens seem to become undetectable, in sera, after 6 months of efficient treatment.

Specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in patient sera with pulmonary tuberculous and nontuberculous diseases. Note II.

"Two-assay" tests (TAT), immunoenzymatic determination of both specific antibodies and mycobacterial antigens in sera of tuberculous and non-tuberculous subjects, was undertaken in our territorial conditions, where BCG vaccination is systematically applied and the prevalence of tuberculous infection is relatively high. The sensitivity of the method, calculated on 42 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and on 39 patients with post-tuberculosis syndromes is high, i.e. 0.952. The specificity of the method separately calculated for 44 young subjects (under 21 years old), for 78 healthy adults and for 201 lung diseased patients, bacteriologically not ascertained as tuberculosis at the moment of sera prelevation, varied between 0.830 and 0.489. "TAT", performed with crude immunologic reagents, produces false-positive reactions in early BCG vaccinated subjects. Method specificity low values in pulmonary non-tuberculous patients group may be partially explained by the difficulty in establishing the real relationships, in time, between host and mycobacteria, by the bacteriological method imperfections or sample prelevating methods. Our results certainly underestimate the diagnosis value of "TAT".

[Corticotherapy of bronchial asthma, using dosed aerosols]. / Corticoterapia astmului bronsic cu aerosoli dozalti

Corticoid therapy with dosed aerosols is one of the achievements that have been made lately in the treatment of bronchial asthma. In view of establishing the efficiency of this type of treatment two preparations have been used: Auxiloson (isonicotinate of dexamethasone), and Becotide (dipropionate of belcomethasone), in two groups of patients. The favourable results obtained involved over 80% of the patients treated with each of these drugs. The use of corticoid therapy with dosed aerosols in the treatment of bronchial asthma reduces many of the risks of the general therapy with corticoids, and is indicated in the maintenance therapy of patients, between asthma attacks, in the intervals when the risk of such attacks is increased, and especially in the long term treatment of corticoid-dependent bronchial asthma.