The goal of this exploratory method-development study is to to establish and evaluate novel non-invasive methods to monitor airway inflammation induced by allergen challenge (both by instillation during bronchoscopy and by inhalation) in patients with mild allergic asthma.
The investigator wants to further profile and develop the allergen challenge model by investigating the utility of various non-invasive monitoring methods. The hypothesis of the project is that local inflammatory changes in the lung induced by allergen can be captured by gas-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and analysis of exhaled breath.
The validation of cellular outcome measures and non-invasive inflammometry can be used in future clinical trials for proof of concept of novel anti-inflammatory medications.
