Autonomic Responses of Asthmatic

Physiological responses of 20 asthmatic and 10 nonasthmatic children to problem-solving stimuli demonstrated significantly higher heart rates and skin temperatures among the asthmatics. A high incidence of tachycardia in asthmatics was con-firmed by analysis of ECG records of 352 chronically asthmatic children, ages 7—16, and a number of environmental factors were ruled out as causative agents of the high heart rate. Failure to obtain a normal regression line for the heart rate response of asthmatic children suggested a possible malfunction of homeo-static mechanisms in this group. J.T HAS BEEN SUCGESTED that asthma is associated with parasympathetic hyper-activity, a sympathetic insufficiency, or some combination of these factors/1-8 This orientation seems to have derived from the work of Eppinger and Hess on "vagotonic " types, and from the fact that the major symptoms of an asthma attack —constriction of the bronchioles and excessive mucus secretion—are effected via parasympathetic mediation. Further-more, it is known that an asthma attack can be frequently curtailed or controlled by increasing adrenosympathetic activ-ity through injections of epinephrine o