Traditional herbal strategies for treating lung disease are founded on supporting and tonifying the innate protective resources. This is one area where the divide between traditional and modern approaches is particularly great. There are very few modern endorsements of early treatment strategies. Modern medical science, which at first embraced such agents in the earlier part of this century, no...

We report here a very rare case of pneumomediastinum due to spontaneous tracheal rupture with tracheobronchomalacia. The patient was a 74-year-old woman who had suffered nocturnal dyspnea due to productive cough for five days prior to admission and had been treated with corticosteroids for five years at another hospital after being diagnosed with bronchial asthma. Computed tomographic scanning ...

The colonic mucus gel layer (MGL) is a critical component of the innate immune system acting as a physical barrier to microbes, luminal insults, and toxins. Mucins are the major component of the MGL. Selected microbes have the potential to interact with, bind to, and metabolize mucins. The tolerance of the host to the presence of these microbes is critical to maintaining MGL homeostasis. In dis...

Anti bacterial activities of several „non-antibiotic drugs‟ used in treatment of a variety of noninfectious human diseases have been observed. Such an effect has been noticed for barbiturates, beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, diuretic drugs, H1 antihistamines, mucolytic agents, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, proton pump inhibitors and psychotherapeutic drugs. A synergic or antagoni...

In a double-blind, controlled cross-over trial, the effect of the mucolytic drug bromhexine (24 mg or 48 mg daily) was compared with a placebo over a period of 14 weeks in 21 severe chronic bronchitics (mean FEVI.0 0-8 1.). Each of the three treatment regimes was continued for four weeks with intervening single weeks on placebo tablets. As the subjects were outpatients, sodium fluorescein incor...

BACKGROUND The use of acetylcysteine as a mucolytic agent is controversial. In 1962 it was claimed to be "the most effective agent ... for the liquefaction of ... secretions" but was subsequently taken off the market as a respirator solution. Normal saline, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly popular. A study was undertaken to determine which solution is more effective at clearing retai...

Copyright©2000 Thorne Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No Reprint Without Written Permission N-acetylcysteine Introduction N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is the acetylated precursor of both the amino acid L-cysteine and reduced glutathione (GSH). Historically it has been used as a mucolytic agent in chronic respiratory illnesses as well as an antidote for hepatotoxicity due to acetaminophen overdose...

The overall composition of the mammalian intestinal microbiota varies between individuals: within each individual there are differences along the length of the intestinal tract related to host nutrition, intestinal motility and secretions. Mucus is a highly regenerative protective lubricant glycoprotein sheet secreted by host intestinal goblet cells; the inner mucus layer is nearly sterile. Her...

Medical device-associated infections caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis usually involve biofilm formation and its eradication is particularly challenging. Although rifampicin has been proving to be one of the most effective antibiotics against S. epidermidis biofilms, its use as a single agent can lead to the acquisition of resistance. Therefore, we assessed the combined effect of rifampicin ...