Ventilatory response to carbon dioxide in Nigerian asthmatics before and after aerosol salbutamol inhalation.

Patterns of response to carbon dioxide (CO2) inhalation in 12 Nigerian asthmatic patients before and after salbutamol aerosol inhalation are described. Ventilatory response to CO2 inhalation follows three patterns, viz,(1) an increase; (2) a decrease; (3) no change in response. While most of our subjects showed substantial improvement in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) following bronchodialator therapy, there was no corresponding change in ventilatory response to CO2. On the whole. the mean values of the slope of response to CO2 inhalation of the asthmatics before and after bronchodilator were not significantly different from values obtained in normal patients in our laboratory.