In an adult population, 7.2% HS inhalations in controls did not show a significant fall of the forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV 1 ) compared to patients with bronchial asthma in which there was a highly significant reduction of 20% in FEV 1 (chi-squared test: X 2 = 75.42, p < 0.001), proving the ability of HS bronchoprovocation to diagnose asthma [ 27 ].
However, for the speleotherapy combined with the exercise group (compared to the exercise alone group), relative treatment effects indicated a more substantial decrease of white blood cell and nasal eosinophilic cell count, suggesting a sustainable improvement effect of the mucociliary clearance time and post hoc test showed a trend in the interaction effect at day 60 for allergic symptoms, revealing a faster return to baseline within the speleotherapy group.