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guys breathe easy... Spoke to the company regarding the Aridol Phase 3 results. Here are some of the key points to make holders feel a little more comfortable about the results

- Although the specificity and sensitivity results from the US phase 3 trial are similar it is probable that further analysis of the data will reveal significant differences. In addition the US study was confined to a very specific niche of patients (patients with suspected asthma/ no certain diagnosis). Aridol has applications in a far wider group of patients than this, so one shouldn’t extrapolate the results of this study too far.

- Aridol is an indirect challenge test and measures a patient’s inflammatory response to an osmotic stimulus. This is very different to a direct challenge test like methacholine which acts directly on the airway smooth muscle.

- Aridol positive patients have active airway inflammation and are therefore likely to respond to inhaled steroids. The same cannot be said of methacholine.

- Aridol is thus a more clinically useful test.

- Aridol offers a standard operating procedure for challenge testing removing the many variables that can effect methacholine testing.

- Aridol is a faster and cleaner test that both patients and operators will prefer.

- Aridol has further potential applications in monitoring patient’s response to treatment and managing asthma.