Feature Channels: Asthma

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Outdoor air pollution may increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and contribute to kidney failure, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System. Scientists culled national VA databases to evaluate the effects of air pollution and kidney disease on nearly 2.5 million people over a period of 8.5 years, beginning in 2004. The scientists compared VA data on kidney function to air-quality levels collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The study is published Sept. 21 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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Antibody treatment reduces rate of flare-ups in patients with a subgroup of treatment-resistant COPD.

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The best way to find out if someone has a food allergy is through an oral food challenge (OFC) under the supervision of a board-certified allergist. A new study shows that OFCs are extremely safe, with very few people having a reaction of any kind.

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Mucin levels – the proteins that make mucus thick – is abnormally high in chronic bronchitis and mucin concentrations are associated with disease severity. This finding could become the first-ever objective marker of chronic bronchitis and lead to the creation of diagnostic and prognostic tools.

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A research team led by Deborah Ellis, Ph.D., professor of family medicine and public health sciences in Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, received a $3.2 million award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund a study that will develop interventions to reduce barriers to optimal asthma management and reduce the risk for asthma-related deaths of minority children, with a focus on African American adolescents.

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Biomedical engineering researchers at Case Western Reserve University are refining more than 15 years of work on an electrical nerve-block implant, focusing their next step on new applications related to treating asthma and heart failure.

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A team of researchers at the University of Georgia and Virginia Commonwealth University has developed a computer model to help scientists better understand changes in lung function and respiratory mechanics as people age

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Keeping allergies and asthma under control during the school year is a challenge that involves advance planning and working with your child's school to keep him or her healthy.

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While other molecules may be “sexier,” said John Toffaletti, PhD, a patient with very low oxygen can die within half an hour without appropriate intervention. Toffaletti, together with Craig Rackley, MD, led a popular workshop on Sunday for the third year in a row titled, “Guidance for Evaluating the Hypoxemic Patient in the Critical Care Setting.”

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Press can register here to livestream this special session through Newswise Live on Monday, July 31 at 7:30 PM EDT

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Exposure to environmental pollutants during pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma for as many as three consecutive generations, according to new research.

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Summer colds might seem rare, but you’re actually just as likely to catch one in the summer as in the winter. Why?

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Loyola Medicine is enrolling patients in the first major study of a rare, debilitating lung disease that disproportionately affects people from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans who have the disease, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS), are believed to have descended from a single founding patient.

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New findings have important clinical implications, suggesting that corticosteroids, the main treatment for asthma, may worsen the disease in this group of patients.

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After 12 weeks of taking an anti-asthma drug, a subset of patients with type 2 diabetes showed a clinically significant reduction in blood glucose during a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, report University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Michigan researchers.

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The University of Chicago Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative and the Department of Pediatrics will lead a collaboration of health providers to develop the South Side Pediatric Asthma Center.

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A study from the University of Warwick suggests peer-led self-management programmes have little impact on the quality of life or lung function of adolescents with asthma.

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ROCHESTER, Minn. —Mayo Clinic researchers report that women who suffered adverse childhood experiences or abuse as an adult are 62 percent more likely to have their ovaries removed before age 46. These removals are for reasons other than the presence of ovarian cancer or a high genetic risk of developing cancer, says the new study published today in BMJ Open.

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A new study finds that exposure to a widespread outdoor fungus can increase cell damage (oxidative stress) in the airways. This spike weakens the airways’ barrier defense system that, when functioning normally, removes infection- and allergy-causing organisms (mucociliary clearance).

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The results of the trial, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrate that patients treated with a potential new medicine and antibody, called benralizumab, were more than four times likely to reduce their usage of oral corticosteroids than those taking a placebo.