Acute and Chronic Effects of Inhaled Steroids on Pulmonary Function in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
1969-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Individuals with chronic cervical SCI are known to have a restrictive ventilatory defect due
to complete or partial loss of respiratory muscle innervation which is dependent upon the
level and completeness of injury [2]. In addition, they share many aspects of obstructive
airway physiology commonly associated with asthma. In asthma, physiological responses such as
decrease in baseline airway caliber, bronchodilatation following inhalation of a
beta-2-adrenergic agonist or anticholinergic agent, airway hyperreactivity, are all closely
related to airway inflammation. The cause of such inflammation is unclear, and may be
multi-factorial and attributable to: recurrent respiratory infections due to inability to
effectively clear secretions, unopposed parasymphathetic innervation, and loss of functional
sympathetic innervation to the airways. Therefore, the investigators propose to test for the
possible involvement the above mechanisms by pharmacological intervention, and to study
effects of such intervention on overall pulmonary function and indirect measures of pulmonary
inflammation: levels of FeNO, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) inflammatory biomarker profile,
pulmonary function tests, and cellular profile of the induced sputum.