Moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be an auto-immunity problem, according to researchers in Spain, who studied the presence of auto-antibodies in patients with COPD and compared them to levels of control subjects. They found that a significant number of patients with COPD had significant levels of auto-antibodies circulating in their blood, about 5 to 10 times the level in controls.
An investigational drug targeting a defective protein that causes cystic fibrosis has been shown to improve lung function in a small study of CF patients. The investigational drug, VX-770, appeared to improve function of what is known as CFTR--the faulty protein responsible for CF.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have demonstrated that the gene mutated in cystic fibrosis not only controls traffic on the chloride highway, but also keeps the sodium highway from being overused.
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may blame their daytime difficulties on simple sleepiness, but new research suggests that their brains may be to blame. Specifically, their cognitive challenges may be caused by structural deficits in gray matter, brought on by the intermittent oxygen deprivation that comes with OSA.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a little-known disease that kills as many people each year as breast cancer. University of Michigan researchers have found a new indicator for the more aggressive form of IPF and they hope targeting it may help develop new treatments.
Study findings might help better understand bronchitis, emphysema, other lung diseases.
Long term exposure to low-level air pollution may increase the risk of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to researcher s in Denmark. While acute exposure of several days to high level air pollution was known to be a risk factor for exacerbation in pre-existing COPD, until now there had been no studies linking long-term air pollution exposure to the development or progression of the disease.
Exacerbations in cystic fibrosis (CF) may be linked to chronic infection with a bacterium called Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, which was previously thought to simply colonize the CF lung. The finding that chronic infection with S. maltophilia is independently linked with an increased risk of exacerbations gives clinicians and researchers a new potential measure of the health status of CF patients, as well as a new potential target in fighting their disease.
Exposure to common viruses in daycare puts children with a chronic lung condition caused by premature birth at risk for serious respiratory infections, according to a study from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center published in the October issue of Pediatrics.
Casual smokers may think that smoking a few cigarettes a week is "no big deal." But according to new research from physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, having an infrequent smoke, or being exposed to secondhand smoke, may be doing more harm than people may think. The findings may further support public smoking bans, say the authors.
An analysis of more than 200,000 deliveries finds that compared to infants born at full term, those born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks are more likely to have severe respiratory illness, and this risk decreases with each added week of gestational age during the late preterm period, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA.
A team led by UIC researchers report that babies born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks gestation are much more likely to have respiratory illness compared to infants born at full term, and their risk of respiratory illness decreases with each additional week of gestation until 38 weeks.
Smokers who are exposed to wood smoke, either through home heating and cooking or through ambient neighborhood pollution, are not only at increased risk of COPD, but are also more likely to have epigenetic changes in the DNA that further increase their risk of COPD and related pulmonary problems.
Findings published online in the European Respiratory Journal suggest nitric oxide may be useful in identifying children at risk for the disease.
Daily use of probiotics reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients by almost half, according to new research from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.
A rare but fatal disease of blood vessels in the lung may be caused in part by aberrant silencing of genes rather than genetic mutation, new research reports. University of Chicago researchers have now found that a form of epigenetics – the modification of gene expression – causes the disease in an animal model and could contribute to the disease in humans.
Among patients hospitalized for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), those who received antibiotics in the first 2 hospital days had improved outcomes, such as a lower likelihood of mechanical ventilation and fewer readmissions, compared to patients who received antibiotics later or not at all, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA.
Among infants and children hospitalized in Kenya with severe pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) appears to be the predominant virus detected, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA.
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may have fewer respiratory flare-ups and longer survival if they take beta-blocker medications, according to a report in the May 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for the first time have determined that bone marrow cells play a critical role in fighting respiratory viruses, making the bone marrow a potential therapeutic target, especially in people with compromised immune systems. They have found that during infections of the respiratory tract, cells produced by the bone marrow are instructed by proteins to migrate to the lungs to help fight infection.
Adult patients without health insurance admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in Pennsylvania hospitals are at a 21 percent increased risk of death compared to similar patients with private insurance, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. The difference in mortality risk was not explained by patient characteristics or differences in care at the hospital level, suggesting that uninsured patients might receive poorer quality care.
Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) can prevent critical illness polyneuromyopathy (CIPNM), according to Greek researchers. CIPNM is an acquired limb and respiratory muscle weakness that is a common and serious problem among intensive care unit patients, and can result in prolonged ICU and hospital stay. EMS can also shorten the duration of weaning from mechanical ventilation and the length of ICU stay.
High school student will present findings on the use of repeated xrays among children on home mechanical ventilation.
Female sex hormones may work with beta-agonists in reducing airway constriction, according to new bench research from the Mayo Clinic.
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