Pulmonology

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.

Recently, researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus discovered high doses of vitamin D helped older, long-term care residents reduce the risk of acute respiratory illness (ARI).

As more men and women who served their country come home their skills can be put to good use in the medical community. Finding those veterans and reservists and getting them the training they need can make all the difference in their life out of uniform.

While medics and corpsmen in the military do similar jobs to what nurses do in civilian practice, those skills do not translate into certification when they leave the service.

When veterans, including medics and corpsmen come back from serving overseas their medical skills do not automatically translate into certification. Colleges and Universities are developing programs to help them and also reservists earn their bachelor of science in nursing degrees.

For Alzheimer’s disease patients, the risk of pneumonia could be increased with the use of antipsychotic medications, according to findings published in the journal Chest.

A new analysis of records from India and Vietnam has found a significant association between cesarean birth and childhood asthma. Studies of children born in wealthier countries have produced similar results.

When patients leave the waiting room of their provider, their concerns can go with them. With the help of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, those concerns can be addressed while information is shared in a new and effective manner.

Even patients on low- to medium-dose inhaled corticosteroids administered over a long period could be at risk for adrenal insufficiency.

Smoking is bad for everyone’s lungs – but it’s especially bad for people with asthma. So you would think that someone with the lung condition would steer clear of activities which can trigger an attack.

Not having access to fruits and vegetables puts children at higher risk for asthma, according to a new study.

Researchers have proposed three key risk factors for transmission and acquisition of carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

One year after the November 2015 FDA approval of mepolizumab (Nucala, GlaxoSmithKline) to treat severe asthma with eosinophilic phenotype, a review considers how initial studies missed its effectiveness, the subsequent evidence that supported its utility, and possible future applications.

For many years, there were no good treatments for patients with pulmonary hypertension. That has changed recently, but there is still much more work to be done.

Unlike other conditions, pulmonary hypertension has symptoms that can be hard to identify in order to give the patients the right diagnosis. Misdiagnosis can not only worsen the symptoms, but also make treatment that much harder in the long run.

For cardiologists, treating a patient with hypertension is becoming a more common and less complicated effort. However, a similar condition, called pulmonary hypertension, is not nearly as well understood, managed, or treated.

The search for newer antimicrobial agents is a focus of those looking to help prevent patients from developing potentially dangerous conditions while admitted to the hospital.

In many hospitals there is a consistent effort to monitor how patients are responding to various treatments. This can be done at different increments which can determine in some cases how effective treatments are against pathogens which can affect a patients' health.

There are more and more challenges facing patients and doctors in hospital settings as "superbugs," or those conditions which are resistant to medications and antibiotics become a greater problem.

Patients with HIV are three times more likely to smoke cigarettes than the general population, which means that about 40% of people with HIV are smokers.

Living in a neighborhood with high rates of crime, both violent and crimes of property, appears linked to the prevalence and severity of childhood asthma, a study of Mexican American children in Chicago found.

The US is obsessed with eliminating odors, but a survey showed that trend may be unhealthy.

The so-called “hygiene hypothesis” holds that lack of exposure has made developed populations more allergic and asthmatic. Though using exposure shows promise as a preemptive approach to reducing risk for allergen-induced asthma, the window for its implementation is small.

The researchers report that the results of this study “confirmed the rapid and sustained effectiveness of MP-AzeFlu under conditions of routine care around Europe.”

Leukotriene B4 levels are higher in the sputum of some asthma patients than in others, according to the results of a recent study.

Both albuterol multidose dry powder inhaler (MDPI) and albuterol hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) outperformed placebo in a recent phase II trial.

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

Hookworms aren't the common affliction that they once were, at least in the developed world, but asthma prevalence is growing. A new study winks at a correlation, suggesting that a protein in the pesky parasites may treat asthma.

The technologies of texting, phone apps, and social media are being applied to asthma self-management programs for adolescents to enhance adherence to medication and effective response to symptoms.

For patients living a sedentary lifestyle, adding a little extra physical activity can go a long way in improving their overall health.