[Respiratory function in asthmatics deficient and non-deficient in alpha 1-antitrypsin].

The high prevalence of alleles S and Z in relation to deficient states of alpha-1-antitrypsin (alpha-1-AT) in patients with allergic bronchial syndrome has been tested in a sample of the population in Havana City. Due to the high incidence of bronchial asthma in Cuba, it is important to study the factors that might be involved in its etiology, and that is why the probable relation of alpha-1-AT deficiency to bronchial asthma is analyzed in this work. The phenotype for alpha-1-antitrypsin (alpha-1-AT) and the maximum expiratory flow were determined in 174 male and female ambulatory asthmatics between 15 and 82 years of age, by means of a manual flow meter. The possible relationship between the age at which asthma crisis shows up and the phenotype for alpha-1-AT was taken into account. In 108 patients who showed neither dyspnea nor auscultatory signs at the time of expiratory flow measurement, the influence of the phenotype for alpha-1-AT and the age at which the crisis show up on the maximum flow values and eventual interaction of both factors were studied. The maximum flow values reached by patients bearing different phenotypes according to the time of asthma development were also compared. The results did not show significant differences in any comparison made among the subjects with normal phenotypes for alpha-1-AT and the deficient phenotypes beares. Nevertheless, there might be differences in the respiratory function between normal and deficient phenotypes of alpha-1-AT that might be hidden because of the simultaneous occurrence of other factors participating in the etiopathogenesis of bronchial asthma.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)