[Therapy of respiratory tract diseases with N-acetylcysteine. An open therapeutic observation study of 2,512 patients].

STUDY DESIGN: Open therapeutic observational study. PATIENTS: 2,510 patients with acute and chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma, and emphysema. TREATMENT: 4-week treatment with N-acetylcystein administered three times a day 200 mg dissolved (n = 1734) or undissolved (n = 608) or at some other, usually lower, dosage (n = 173). During the f-week treatment phase, any other drugs being taken were neither discontinued nor changed. TARGET PARAMETERS: In addition to 1-sec capacity (FEV1), various, mainly subjective, parameters were noted, in particular coughing, amount and nature of expectorate. RESULTS: for the evaluation, the patients were assigned either to the acute bronchitis or the chronic bronchitis group; the latter group also contained patients with other diseases, such as asthma and emphysema, since such conditions often presented simultaneously. All selected parameters clearly improved under treatment, equally in the acute and chronic bronchitis groups. As expected, the mucolytic effect was very pronounced, the 1-sec capacity increased significantly. No major difference was to be found in the results observed in patients on and those not on other additional medication.