Maximal expiratory flow-volume patterns in airway allergy.

We considered upper and lower airway allergies as different phases of airway allergy and MEFV patterns to vary according to the intensity of airway obstruction in maximal expiratory flow-volume and volume-time tests on fourteen patients with nasal allergy, two with allergic bronchitis, two with bronchial asthma, and sixteen nonsmoking healthy subjects. In nasal allergy, flow changes during high lung volumes were different from those in allergic bronchitis and bronchial asthma, and MEFV patterns in nasal allergy were more widely varied than those in allergic bronchitis and bronchial asthma. We classified MEFV patterns into five ones.