On the assumption that short term changes in lung function may reflect the potential for a long term decline the evolution of lung function indices in 25 steelworkers from a strandcasting department and in 11 comparable steelworkers not exposed to dust was investigated over an almost uninterrupted 21 day working period and over three different workshifts. The mean total dust level in the strand...

Background In severe asthma, high doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are used in order to achieve clinical and functional control. This study aimed to evaluate lung function in outpatients (children and adolescents) with severe asthma in Brazil, all of whom were treated with high doses of ICS. We evaluated all spirometry tests together and by ICS dose: 800 and > 800 µg/day. Methods This w...

Tiotropium; more knowledge leads to more questions This issue of the International Journal of COPD has 3 original research papers that study the effects of tiotropium. These papers are very different, addressing the effect of tiotropium on the small airways (Incorvaia et al 2008), the benefi t of additional tiotropium treatment during a pulmonary rehabilitation programme (Kesten et al 2008), an...

UNLABELLED The association of bupropion and nicotine is a good choice in the treatment of smoking cessation. However, not all patients actually give up smoking. STUDY OBJECTIVES This work was undertaken with the aim of finding out the functional or clinical variables that could be associated with the success of the cessation therapy. DESIGN In one year, 88 patients who were treated with bup...

BACKGROUND Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) describes airway narrowing that occurs in association with exercise. Exercise in hot and cold environments has been reported to increase exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in subjects with asthma. However, to our knowledge, the effect of hot and cold environment on pulmonary function and EIB in trained males has not been previously s...

BACKGROUND A few studies have assessed the short-term effects of low-dose nicotine e-cigarettes, while data about nicotine-free e-cigarettes (NF e-cigarettes) are scanty. Concerns have been expressed about the use of NF e-cigarettes, because of the high concentrations of propylene glycol and other compounds in the e-cigarette vapor. METHODS This laboratory-based study was aimed to compare the...

BACKGROUND The most common cystic fibrosis (CF) manifestation is the progressive chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by deficiency, dysfunction, or absence of the CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator) protein on the apical surface of the cells in the respiratory tract. The use of bronchodilators (BD), and inhaled corticosteroids (IC) have been suggested for the management of a...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have reported associations between lung function parameters and organophosphate (OP) pesticide exposures in agricultural occupations, but to our knowledge associations have not been evaluated in general populations. OBJECTIVES We examined associations between OP metabolite dialkyl phosphates (DAPs) and lung function using data from the Canadian Health Measur...

Introduction: Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) protects skeletal muscles from ischemia-reperfusion injury and improves physical exercise performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether application of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) of upper limbs would affect the pulmonary function tests and the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). Methods: Twenty healthy trained...

  Background :Despite the presence of many textile and dyeing plants in Iran, we couldn’t find similar studies in this country. Forthermore, considering progress in the dyeing process and engineering controls, assessment of respiratory system is important for these workers. The present study was performed to evaluate the respiratory system in dyeing workers.   Methods : In a cross-sectional stu...