Investigation of the Effect of Ketotifen on Alcohol-Induced Asthma: A Case Study

摘要

A male patient with bronchial asthma suffered severe exacerbation of symptoms after drinking alcohol and this was not prevented by treatment with bronchodilators. After taking 1 mg ketotifen twice daily for nasal obstruction, within 1 month there was no longer any exacerbation of symptoms by alcohol. Blood samples were taken and peripheral eosinophils were purified and incubated with beer antigen. Using a chemiluminescence method, it was shown that pretreatment with ketotifen dose dependently inhibited the generation of the highly reactive oxygen metabolite superoxide (O2?) by the eosinophils. It is proposed that ketotifen prevented the alcoholexacerbated asthma attacks by inhibiting the release of tissuedamaging superoxide from eosinophils.