Canadian Asthma Pioneer Dies

Dr. Frederick Hargreave was an internationally renowned respirologist who changed the way asthma is diagnosed. He died suddenly of a heart attack.

Here is his biography and research information from McMaster's University (located in Hamilton, Ontario) where he was a Professor Emeritus, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine

Education and Professional Standing
Dr. F. E. Hargreave, in his training as clinical researcher with Jack Pepys and his subsequent collaboration with Jerry Dolovich, has been a pioneer in the improved understanding and treatment of asthma and its association with chronic cough and COPD. This has been achieved by the use of objective measurements of airway inflammation, airway responsiveness and airflow limitation.

Research Interests
With allergen inhalation tests, Dr. Hargreave validated the occurrence of late asthmatic responses, showed that they were common, that they could result from the combination of allergen with IgE antibodies, that they were associated with allergen-induced increases in airway responsiveness to non-allergic stimuli and with airway inflammation and that they could be (and were subsequently) used to study the anti-inflammatory effect of new drugs. He also standardized and evaluated measurements of non-allergic airway responsiveness to histamine and methacholine. He showed that these are the most sensitive measurements to identify the presence of current asthma when symptoms are present but spirometry is normal and that they are important determinants of the degree of variable airflow limitation. They are now widely used in research and clinical practice.

Dr. Hargreave also introduced sputum induction and refined the processing of sputum, to measure airway inflammation relatively non-invasively. He evaluated the measurements and applied them to study the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and treatment of asthma, chronic cough and COPD. The observations emphasize the occurrence of different types of airway inflammation, their different causes and different response to treatment.

Sputum inflammatory markers are now being increasingly used in research and in practice.