ABSTRACT
The aim of the work was to study clinical and pathophysiological features of endothelial dysfunction, structural and functional state of the left heart in patients with bronchial asthma (BA). The study included 290 patients. 250 of them presented with moderate or severe BA during exacerbation and within 12 months after the onset of observation, 40 healthy volunteers served as controls. The endothelial function was disturbed in 63 and 74% of the patients with moderate and severe BA respectively. They showed reduced endothelium-dependent vasodilation in combination with a significant increase of the plasma sDC31/ sPECAM-1 level. It is concluded that patients with BA develop structural and functional changes in the left ventricular myocardium proportional to the severity of BA which leads to diastolic dysfunction.