AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY JOURNAL NEWS TIPS FOR DECEMBER
For release: 12/17/98
TB TESTS RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN TRAVELING TO HIGH RISK COUNTRIES
Looking closely at 72 young children who had a positive TB skin test, researchers found that those who had traveled to a country with a high prevalence rate within the past 12 months were four times more likely to test positive. Also, children with a household visitor from a high prevalence country were 2-1/2 times more likely to have a positive skin test. They warn that children who either travel to one of the 15 high prevalence countries throughout the world or have a guest from one of these countries should be tested for the disease. The participants were part of a screening project involving 953 California youngsters from counties with high tuberculosis rates. This study appears in the December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
MORE THAN 20 PERCENT OF DUTCH HAVE DECREASING LUNG FUNCTION
After testing 1,155 Dutch adults, ages 25 to 70, to detect early signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, investigators discovered a rapid decline or a persistent decrease in lung function for 20 percent, a figure which they projected to the country's general population. Another 20 percent showed milder forms of the two diseases. The researchers said that a large proportion of undiagnosed persons in the country had objective signs of both illnesses. The research appears in the December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
POSSIBLE NEW MOLECULAR MARKER TO EVALUATE SMOKE DAMAGE IN HUMAN LUNG
Cigarette smokers consume an extraordinarily complex mixture of over 3,800 chemical compounds in smoke, including high concentrations of remarkably long-lived free radicals that last over five minutes in gaseous state. The free radicals, which are extremely reactive, randomly attack various cellular constituents, affecting the lung tissues of tobacco users. Investigators studied 152 samples from lung resections of smokers and found that cigarette smoke played an important role in mutating basic material in the lung cell's mitochondrion, a specialized part that functions in cellular metabolism and respiration. They believe that the mutation might serve as a reliable molecular marker for evaluating the damaging effects of cigarette smoke in the human lung. Their article appears in the December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.
For the complete text of the articles, see the ATS Journal Online Website at 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 by e-mail at [email protected].
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