Asthma, allergy and bronchial hyper‐reactivity to histamine in patients with bronchiectasis

Abstract
An allergy examination was made on 48 consecutive bronchiectasis patients, with a mean age of 37 yr. Eleven had confirmed asthma and another 9, making 20 in all (42%), had distinct allergic diathesis. Allergy to a specific allergen was established in 5 cases. Of the patients, 50% in the total series had bronchial histamine hyperreactivity, 11 without asthma or distinct allergic diathesis. The results corroborate views previously reported of the role of asthmatic symptoms and allergic diathesis as etiological factors of bronchiectasis.