Impact of obesity on the severity and therapeutic responsiveness of acute episodes of asthma.

Background: It has been suggested that obesity adversely influences both the severity and the therapeutic responsiveness of chronic asthma. However, it is unclear if it also impacts acute situations.

Methods: To determine whether adiposity worsens the clinical and physiological manifestations of acute asthma and limits therapeutic effectiveness of standard treatment, we contrasted signs, symptoms, medication use, arterial oxygen saturation, peak expiratory flow rate, and the bronchodilator response to standard doses of albuterol in 90 non-obese and 90 obese asthmatics as they presented for urgent care.

Impact of race on the severity of acute episodes of asthma and adrenergic responsiveness.

Rationale: African Americans acutely ill with asthma come to emergency departments more frequently and are admitted to hospital more often than whites but the reasons are unclear.

Objectives: To determine whether such phenomena represent racial differences in attack severity or limited effectiveness of beta(2)-agonist therapy.

Methods And Main Results: We contrasted clinical features, airflow limitation, and albuterol responsiveness in adults acutely ill with asthma, 155 of whom where African American and 140 white, as they presented to eight emergency departments.