Asthma

Study results presented at the 2014 American Thoracic Society International Conference show that treatment with rosuvastatin reduces markers of inflammation in patients with COPD after 12 weeks, but is not associated with improvements in measures of lung function.

Study results presented at the 2014 American Thoracic Society International Conference show that treatment with simvastatin did not decrease exacerbation rates or time to first exacerbation in patients with COPD.

Researchers reported no treatment effects after 12 weeks in a population of patients with persistent moderate to severe allergic asthma.

With the US Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of 2 sublingual immunotherapies for allergic rhinitis with or without conjunctivitis, US physicians no longer have to pursue the off-label use of these treatments.

Inhaler-delivered drug is a once-daily maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema.

Grastek is the first sublingual allergy immunotherapy product to be approved for use in children as young as age 5.

Once confirmation of an asthma diagnosis is made, most primary care physicians can manage the condition and need refer only challenging cases to a pulmonologist.

With rates of asthma flare-ups were twice as high in September as in August, researchers suggest that people are lax about asthma medication use during the summer before children return to school and are exposed to viral infections.

The annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology was held from Feb. 28 to March 4 in San Diego and attracted more than 5,000 participants from around the world, including clinicians, academicians, allied health professionals, and others interested in allergic and immunologic disease. The conference highlighted recent advances in allergy, asthma, and immunology.

Do asthma and COPD share enough characteristics such as reduced rate of airflow resulting from increased inflammation, along with similar responses to some forms of treatment, reduce the importance of differential diagnosis?

Research into the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis has shed new light on the association between asthma and CRS while also providing new insight into CRS disease endotypes, enabling clinicians to individualize treatment regimens.

A pilot program that uses text message medication reminders has led to reduced asthma exacerbations and fewer hospitalizations among participating inner-city adolescents.

Although the mechanisms of disease severity for this form of asthma are not fully understood, progress has been made in identifying promising targets for new treatments.

One patient-centered medical home pilot was associated with improvement in only one of 11 quality areas and was not associated with reductions in hospital utilization or costs of care over 3 years.

Due to its ambiguous etiology, the low cost-to-benefit ratio associated with many laboratory tests used in assessment and diagnosis, and the low-to-moderate strength of evidence supporting many pharmacologic approaches to treatment, chronic urticaria can be one of the most difficult inflammatory skin conditions for clinicians to manage.

With reimbursement increasingly tied to quality measures and other metrics, the question of whether best practices actually produce improved outcomes has taken on greater importance for clinicians and their patients.

Improved control of allergic rhinitis with allergy immunotherapy can mitigate the development and severity of other allergic and respiratory diseases, leading to a reduction in the use of outpatient services.

New research suggests that patients with allergic rhinitis face significantly lower risks for heart attacks, cerebrovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.

With a focus on how obesity affects the lungs, a team of researchers examines insulin's direct impact on lung cells in the context of airway remodeling and hyperresponsiveness.

The FDA has approved Anoro Ellipta (umeclidinium and vilanterol inhalation powder) for the once-daily, long-term maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD.

Guidelines to be released later this year by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) suggest that bronchial thermoplasty may be an effective treatment for moderate to severe asthma patients, for whom inhaled corticosteroids have provided unsatisfactory results.

A "service learning" collaboration that matches respiratory therapy students with elementary schools improves kids' and caregivers' awareness of asthma triggers and reduces unscheduled inhaler use.

While the use of acute, high-dose systemic corticosteroids probably has no clinically significant effect on wound healing, chronic systemic corticosteroids may impair postoperative healing in susceptible patients.

Group visits can be an especially effective tool for providing follow-up care to patients with chronic conditions, offering them increased access to clinicians and other providers, support and encouragement from their peers, and enhanced educational opportunities.

While substantial evidence already shows several genetic and environmental elements factor into immune-mediated rheumatic disease susceptibility, a recent review of hospital admissions data suggests vitamin D deficiency can single-handedly elevate a patient's risk of developing certain chronic conditions within that group of disorders.

Researchers say that new insight into the microbiome will lead to new opportunities for treating a variety of medical conditions, both within and outside the gut.

The cost of asthma due to traffic pollution is far higher than previously estimated, researchers report in a study published online Jan. 20 in European Respiratory Journal.

Infants who grow at an accelerated pace have an increased risk of asthma symptoms, researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands have found.

New evidence from a large cohort study of mothers and children in Norway has affirmed previous studies indicating that babies born via caesarean section have an elevated risk of developing asthma.

A recently published paper in the medical journal Pediatrics argues that there is finally strong enough evidence for doctors to recommend that infants and children who have asthma or are at risk for the disease avoid acetaminophen.