Pulmonology

Surprising links exist between kids with asthma, parental influence, & anxiety.

The AMA appealed to Congress to spare those with DACA status from deportation.

Kids with asthma are four times more likely to have kidney stones.

Don't drink peroxide, even if alternative medicine promotes it.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from January—did you read them all?

Endotracheal intubation may do more harm than good.

Drug store CVS now carries cheaper option to EpiPen.

Previous studies have shown that “the gut microbiota differs in composition and diversity during the first months of life in children who later do or do not have allergic disease," but researchers who focused on immunoglobulin A prevalence made a different finding.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from December—did you read them all?

People most at risk of needing adrenaline auto-injectors tend not to know how to use them properly, studies have found. Physicians are blamed for the lapses.

The pros identified included the possibility of EMDs improving adherence, that the devices might help motivate patients through creating a sense of independence and accountability, and that the data generated could help in building a trusting relationship between clinician and patient.

Smoking teens, rogue genes, and mashed-up hookworms are among the many diverse, fascinating, and important asthma topics that came out of 2016.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved dropping black box warning on two smoking cessation aids.

Using data from the Inner-City Asthma Consortium, researchers were able to identify the factors that contribute to more than half the variance in asthma severity, including allergic sensitization and, significantly, environmental tobacco smoke.

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.”

A study out of the University of Pittsburgh identifies significant comorbidity and negative outcomes in those with insomnia and asthma, and finds that even asthmatics who report no nighttime breathing disturbances still face a predisposition to sleeplessness.

Individuals with atopic asthma were recently found to have a distinctive bronchial bacterial microbiome that not only differs from those without asthma, but between asthmatics with phenotypes more responsive or resistant to inhaled corticosteroids.

An inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting beta2-agonist bronchodilator combination was found more beneficial for patients with Asthma-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Overlap Syndrome (ACOS) than for those with COPD alone.

A recent survey of asthma treatment in intensive care units of children's hospitals in the US reveals wide variability between institutions in both medication and ventilation interventions.

Studies that found no connection are outliers, the authors of the new meta-analysis write. They believe the findings have been consistent enough to assert a certain link between pollution exposure and juvenile asthma, but they note that many important questions remain.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from November – did you read them all?

Severe asthma persists in nonsmoking and smoking patients on currently recommended therapy despite suppressed tissue inflammation within the proximal airway wall, according to a recent report.

Comprehensive care of post-9/11 asthma in adolescents should include management of mental health-related comorbidities, according to a recent report.

As the field of medical ethics continues to expand, its use can be seen in everything from general medical conditions to end of life considerations.

A new study of inner city schools found evidence that high levels of mouse allergens correlated with hindered lung function and an increase in sick days caused by asthma symptoms.

Many previous studies have shown that smoking causes lung cancer, but a recently published report explained that heavy smokers with diabetes also have an increased risk of death unrelated to lung cancer.

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.”

Patients who discontinued long-term treatment with omalizumab (Xolair/Genentech and Novartis) were more likely to experience an episode of severe asthma exacerbation during a one-year monitoring period than those who continued the treatment, in a recent study to determine whether therapeutic effect persists after discontinuation.

A recent study found that Puerto Rican children who lived closer to major roadways exhibited higher levels of certain inflammation-related cytokines in their blood.