Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is an immunologic condition that results from an allergic immune response to Aspergillus fumigatus, most often occurring in a patient with bronchial asthma or cystic fibrosis. ABPA is diagnosed by constellation of clinical, laboratory, and radiographic criteria. In the absence of typical presentation, ABPA can be misdiagnosed. Our patient presented...

Glomus tumors are uncommon tumors that are originated from smooth muscle cells of the neuromioarterials glomus bodies located in the arteriovenous anastomoses subcutaneous tissue or deep dermis of the extremities, mainly in the palms of the hands, wrists and subungual areas of the fingers. Carcinoid tumor, as the glomus tumor, can show an organoid pattern, increased vascularity, and uniform, ro...

BACKGROUND Although researchers have consistently demonstrated systemic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), its origin is yet unknown. We aimed to compare the lung bronchial and parenchymal tissues as potential sources of major acute-phase reactants in COPD patients and resistant smokers. METHODS Consecutive patients undergoing elective surgery for suspected primary ...

Cytoskeletal proteins play important roles in regulating cellular morphology, cytokinesis and intracellular signaling. In this report, we describe a developmentally regulated gene encoding a novel cell lineage-restricted cytoskeletal protein, designated SM22beta. SM22beta shares high-grade sequence identity with the smooth muscle cell (SMC)-specific protein, SM22alpha, the neuron-specific prote...

BACKGROUND Neutrophilic asthma and COPD are obstructive airway diseases common in older age and have a characteristic airway inflammation with neutrophilic bronchitis. The structural differences between neutrophilic asthma and COPD have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the airway and parenchymal abnormalities using high resolution computed tomographic (HRCT) scanning ...

BACKGROUND Over the last few years, differential ion mobility spectroscopy (DMS) has become an important tool in medical research. There are attempts to find markers for specific diseases in exhaled air, using this technology as a non-invasive early diagnosis. OBJECTIVE In the present research, exhaled air from 78 patients with known diagnosis and 39 control persons were tested with a DMS sys...

Use of the air-liquid interface culture technique has produced improved morphological differentiation of rodent, canine, and human tracheal epithelia. We have investigated the effect of this culture technique on ion transport activities of cultured canine bronchial epithelia. These cells were isolated from excised airways by enzymatic digestion and plated on permeable collagen membrane substrat...

Transcription factors of the bHLH-PAS protein family are important regulators of developmental processes such as neurogenesis and tracheal development in invertebrates. Recently a bHLH-PAS protein, named trachealess (trl) was identified as a master regulator of tracheogenesis. Hypoxia-inducible factor, HIF-1 alpha, is a vertebrate relative of trl which is likely to be involved in growth of bloo...

Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) has been measured hourly from waking to sleeping in 29 workers with respiratory symptoms exposed to the fumes of soft soldering fluxes containing colophony (pine resin). Thirty-nine records of mean length 33 days have been analysed, and the results compared with the occupational history and bronchial provocation testing in the same workers. From plots of daily m...

BACKGROUND Pseudomonas aeruginosa commonly infects the airways of patients with bronchiectasis. A study was undertaken to examine the relationship between infection of the airways with this pathogen, the morphological pattern of bronchiectasis on thin section computed tomographic (CT) scanning, symptom duration, smoking habits of the patients, and the presence of airflow obstruction. METHODS ...