Dava Stewart

Only 5-10% of asthma sufferers have "severe" asthma, but account for about 50% of the social cost of the disease. The current focus in research is on finding therapies to treat specific components of the inflammation.

A new article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology argues that genetic studies of asthma, expected to be game-changers, have “delivered neither meaningful clinical diagnostic tools nor useful insights into disease pathogenesis.”

Eyeball tattoos require "injecting some type of pigment directly under the bulbar conjunctiva with a needle." Obviously, ophthalmologists do not endorse such behavior.

Patients who have either chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) or chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) who take oral corticosteroids (OCS) face a greater risk of side effects as well as higher total healthcare costs, according to a recent study.

Although antiretroviral therapy is effective in suppressing HIV-1 replication, it does not eradicate the virus and it requires lifelong adherence to the therapy. Authors of a new study say that bNAbs may be the key.

Patients with intermediate uveitis (IU) have a high likelihood of achieving good long-term visual outcomes, but should expect a long disease course and frequent complications

Researchers concerned about inconsistencies in rating disease activity in uveitis have come up with a new scoring system called UVEDAI.

Adalimumab (ADA) works well as a treatment for patients with both active and inactive uveitis whether or not they are taking an immunosuppressant (IMM); however, the median time to treatment failure (mTTF) is longer for patients with inactive uveitis taking an IMM.

Panuveitis is associated with recurrent or persistent inflammation (R/PI) for patients with both active and inactive uveitis, a study found.

High-dose biotin may be an effective treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis, researchers in France found.

AerobiKa, a vibratory positive expiratory pressure device meant to reduce mucus plugging, “did not demonstrate statistical significance in terms of improved clinical asthma score or reduced hospitalization rate.”

“While the concept of biofilms in atopic dermatitis is relatively new, antimicrobial and biofilm dispersing agents have been included in the treatment regimen for atopic dermatitis for decades," according to the study authors.

Researchers are getting closer to understanding the pathogenesis of one type of age-related macular degeneration.

Research using mouse models demonstrated that a high-fat diet increased intestinal permeability, which led to increases in circulating and local inflammatory cytokines, and increased choroidal neovascularization.

Children with severe, persistent asthma in Memphis, TN, suffer an extremely high rate of atopy, according to a recent study. Clearer understanding of this relationship would allow physicians to employ more personalized and effective interventions.

Researchers in Denmark recently reported that hospital-diagnosed atopic dermatitis is associated with a greater risk of myocardial infarction.

By applying a machine learning approach, scientists can now differentiate neuromyelitis optica from multiple sclerosis on magnetic resonance imaging scans of patients’ gray matter.

Treatment with recombinant adeno-associated virus vector gene-therapy was shown to be safe and potentially effective in a small test group of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

The broadly neutralizing antibody VRC01 slowed down plasma viral rebound in patients with human immunodeficiency virus, compared to historical controls, but did not maintain viral suppression.

Alemtuzumab provided more benefits to patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who had poor response to other therapies than subcutaneous interferon-B-1a.

The presence of hyper-reflective foci (HF) is related to the level of severity of age-related macular degeneration.

Sofosbuvir-based therapy is safe to treat patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who also have mental health disease.

The two major causes of atopic dermatitis: dysfunctional dermal barrier and immune responses.

Scientists have ruled out the gene DMBT1 in the pursuit of understanding the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Curiouser and curiouser. Like Alice in Wonderland, when Alan Thompson, MD, first entered multiple sclerosis research, he was deeply puzzled. But he kept going deeper.

Even in high-income countries, patients can have problems getting the expensive direct acting antivirals that are so effective in treating hepatitis C.

Researchers offer road map for choosing antiretroviral therapies for treatment-naive HIV patients.

There is an optimal drug regimen for preventing HIV positive mothers from infecting their newborns. But it comes with more adverse events.

Cortical lesions in MS have clinical relevance.

In MS patients with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, discontinuing natalizumab poses a risk of rebound. The warning comes from a case report.