[Can respiratory tolerance to beta-blockers be predicted?].

Adverse effects on respiratory function is one of the main problems associated with the use of beta-adrenoceptor antagonists. Studies on this subject in healthy volunteers or patients with obstructive airway disease have been performed by measuring air flow at rest and after exercise, but no attention has been paid to the repercussions on pulmonary circulation. The lack of standardized protocol, the inhomogeneity of groups and the absence of long-term studies preclude objective comparisons between the different beta-adrenoceptor antagonists. On the whole, cardioselective beta-blockers are better tolerated than the others, but any classification based on the respiratory effects to cardiovascular effectiveness ratio is, for the moment, impossible to establish.