AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY NEWS TIPS FOR FEBRUARY
PUERTO RICANS HAVE HIGHEST ASTHMA DEATH RATES AMONG U.S. HISPANICS
Mortality rates from asthma among Hispanics living in the U.S., vary dramatically by nationality, with Puerto Ricans having the highest death rates. Although Puerto Ricans had 34 percent of the reported asthma deaths in Hispanics between 1990 and 1995, they made up only 11 percent of all Hispanics living in the mainland United States in 1997. By contrast, Hispanics of Mexican origin, who constitute 31 percent of the reported deaths, made up 63 percent of the Hispanic population in 1997.
The investigators said that a genetic or biologic predisposition toward asthma might exist in Puerto Ricans. However, they noted they did not yet understand how this predisposition led to higher prevalence, mortality, and perhaps severity of asthma.
The research is published in the February American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON IDIOPATHIC PULMONARY FIBROSIS
An international group of experts collectively produced a consensus statement directed at the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). This disease results from the abnormal accumulation of inflammatory cells in lung tissue, causing scarring and fibrosis.
IPF usually occurs after age 50. The average length of survival from the time of diagnosis to death ranges from 3.2 to 5 years. The panelists stress that efforts should be made to identify patients with IPF earlier in the course of their disease when it is more likely their clinical outlook can be altered by treatment.
Treatment options for IPF include corticosteroids, immunosuppressive/cytotoxic agents and anti- fibrotic agents alone or in combination. Between 10 to 30 percent of patients improve when treated with corticosteroids. The experts stress, however, that lung transplantation should be considered for patients under 60 who experience progressive physiologic deterioration despite optimal medical management.
The consensus statement appears in the February American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
ATS OFFICIAL STATEMENT--ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
A new statement by an ATS panel looks at the distinction between adverse and non-adverse human health effects from air pollution. Although the statement does not offer "strict rules or numerical criteria," it does focus on the principles to be used in risk management related to the health effects of air pollution. It examines biomarkers, quality of life, physiologic impact, symptoms, clinical outcomes, mortality, and risk assessment.
The committee noted that some groups within the U.S., receive a disproportionate exposure to environmental agents that are injurious to health. They point out that the exposures of concern originate in polluted outdoor air; living in substandard housing with indoor air pollution problems, including exposure to bioaerosols and combustion products; and working in jobs with occupational respiratory risk.
The statement appears in the February American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
For the complete text of articles, see the ATS Journal Online Web Site at http://www.atsjournals.org To request complimentary journalist access to the site, or to be put on a mailing list for a monthly ATS Media Memo and News Briefs, please contact Lori Atkins at (212) 315-6442, by fax at (212) 315-6455, or at [email protected]
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