Effect of an inhaled neutral endopeptidase inhibitor, phosphoramidon, on baseline airway calibre and bronchial responsiveness to bradykinin in asthma

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Bradykinin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Bradykinin is a potent vasoactive peptide which has been proposed as an important inflammatory mediator in asthma since it provokes potent bronchoconstriction in asthmatic subjects.

Little is known at present about the potential role of lung peptidases in modulating bradykinin-induced airway dysfunction in vivo in man.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 subjects.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

Subjects attended on six separate occasions at the same time of day during which concentration-response studies with inhaled bradykinin and histamine were carried out, without treatment and after each test drug.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The subjects were allocated by chance, so the Bradykinin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the subjects and researchers unaware of who received Bradykinin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Bradykinin group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Inhalation, Aerosols, Asthma, Bradykinin, Bronchi, Bronchial Provocation Tests and Forced Expiratory Volume.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Bradykinin in 10 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1995 (Thorax), a journal based in England.

More context: the Bradykinin compound page, all human trials.