BACKGROUND It is known that a wide variety of factors exacerbate asthma; however, few studies have investigated the factors that exacerbate asthma from a patient's perspective. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors that exacerbate asthma, based on a questionnaire completed by asthma patients in Niigata Prefecture. METHODS Based on questionnaires given to 3085 patients who visited t...

The rising worldwide prevalence of asthma has intensified interest in the natural history of asthma. An improved understanding of the genetic, environmental, and developmental factors contributing to the inception and exacerbation of asthma will be crucial to efforts to devise effective preventive and therapeutic interventions. There is increasing evidence that the complex interplay of early li...

Pneumomediastinum has been described in patients with asthma. In this case report, we describe a young patient who presented to our medical assessment unit with an asthma exacerbation and progressive dyspnea. The patient developed pneumomediastinum, a rare complication of an asthma exacerbation. Pneumomediastinum is usually characterized by chest pain, dyspnea, and neck swelling caused by subcu...

Exacerbations of asthma during pregnancy represent a significant clinical problem and may be related to poor pregnancy outcomes. A systematic review of the literature was conducted for publications related to exacerbations during pregnancy. Four studies with a control group (no asthma) and two groups of women with asthma (exacerbation, no exacerbation) were included in meta-analyses using fixed...

The efficacy of omalizumab has been extensively investigated in clinical trials in patients with severe persistent allergic (pre-treatment total immunoglobulin E 30–700 IU?mL) asthma including the Investigation of Omalizumab in Severe Asthma Treatment (INNOVATE) study, which enrolled patients with inadequately controlled severe persistent allergic asthma despite receiving high-dose inhaled cort...

Recent experimental and epidemiological studies have suggested that outcomes of asthma are significantly influenced by treatment patterns. This study was conducted in order to investigate the links between treatment patterns in asthmatics and occurrence of disease exacerbations. We performed a nested case-control study in a cohort of 680 asthmatics identified between 1986 and 1991 in a drug dis...

The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical significance of changes in the plasma adiponectin concentration in patients with bronchial asthma and to test the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs2241766 and rs1501299 in the ADIPOQ gene and bronchial asthma in the Chinese Li population. We selected 120 cases and 120 controls, and plasma adiponectin, interl...

Exacerbations of asthma during pregnancy represent a significant clinical problem and may be related to poor pregnancy outcomes. A systematic review of the literature was conducted for publications related to exacerbations during pregnancy. Four studies with a control group (no asthma) and two groups of women with asthma (exacerbation, no exacerbation) were included in metaanalyses using fixed ...

Asthma is a serious and prevalent public health problem that spans the entire world. It is estimated that asthma affects over 300 million people worldwide.1 Its prevalence is approximately 21 million citizens in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 Other reports indicate that as many as 9.5 million children currently have asthma in the United States.3...

BACKGROUND Use of corticosteroids in asthma is a must however the route of administration of steroid in acute exacerbation is a matter of debate. Intravenous steroids used very frequently in clinical practice may not offer any advantage over oral steroids. AIM To compare to the efficacy of oral vs intravenous steroids in adults admitted with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. METHODS A...