History of EIB
In the second century CE Greek physician Aretaeus the Cappadocian wrote:
“If from running, and exercise, and labor of any kind a difficulty of
breathing follows it is termed asthma”. This may be the earliest known
written report of EIB2. More recent information
regarding EIB was published in 1860, in a book entitled “On Asthma: its
pathology and treatment” published by Salter3. Salter
described various types of asthma with predisposing factors, dividing
the disease into two types: “spasmodic” (i.e., idiopathic,
“uncomplicated”) and “organic” (“complicated”). According to the
author, “as exercise level increases, a rapid flow of fresh and cold
air through the bronchi triggers organic asthma symptoms”.
The quantitative description of bronchospasm during exercise was
presented in the 1960s. In certain patients with asthma, researchers
observed a decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)
during and after exercise, describing this phenomenon asexercise-induced asthma (EIA)4. In later years
the term exercise-induced bronchospasm was used and finally become
exercise-induced bronchoconstriction5.