Sputum induced by inhalation of nebulized hypertonic saline is increasingly used to monitor airways inflammation in asthma. The aim of this study was to assess the repeatability of measuring cellular and soluble markers of inflammation in whole sputum samples as obtained by sputum induction in patients both with mild and moderate-to-severe asthma. Twelve patients with mild, atopic asthma withou...

We report a case of a 37-year-old mild asthmatic male presenting with fever, productive cough and chest pain. The chest x-ray showed a multilobular perihilar shadow of the right lung with a mass-like appearance, confirmed by the CT-scan. He was diagnosed with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). ABPA usually manifests as chronic asthma, recurrent pulmonary infiltrates and bronchiecta...

INTRODUCTION The pathogenesis of asthma remains unclear, especially in cases of the severe disease. AIM To explore IgE-mediated inhalant sensitization in severe asthma compared with a group of patients with chronic mild disease and evaluate the Th1/Th2 cytokine profiles in asthma by different disease severities. MATERIAL AND METHODS One hundred and fifty-four patients (age range: 28-69) wit...

BACKGROUND Despite being a high burden disorder, the pathogenesis of severe refractory asthma (SRA) is poorly understood. There are some evidences for the involvement of members of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family, including STAT3 and STAT5a. Our study aimed to evaluate the gene expression of STAT3 and STAT5a in asthma and SRA to establish if there is an associ...

Fungal sensitisation is closely associated with asthma; however, the correlation between fungi and asthma severity remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the severity of asthma in 100 patients with asthma due to fungal and non-fungal allergens. A total of 100 outpatients and inpatients with asthma were selected from 2010 to 2011 and were divided into three groups (mild, moder...

BACKGROUND Acute asthmatic exacerbation and readmission may be associated with severe influenza infection and asthmatic children are a priority group for influenza vaccination. To date, our study is the first to evaluate the outcome of the influenza vaccine in asthmatic Asian children. OBJECTIVE To analyze the outcomes of inactivated influenza vaccine in children with mild persistent asthma ...

The currently prescribed tests for asthma diagnosis require compulsory patient compliance, and are usually not sensitive to mild asthma. Development of an objective test using minimally invasive samples for diagnosing and monitoring of the response of asthma may help better management of the disease. Raman spectroscopy (RS) has previously shown potential in several biomedical applications, incl...

BACKGROUND/AIMS There is a need for new anti-asthmatic medications with fewer side effects. NDC-052, an extract of the medicinal herb Magnoliae flos, which has a long history of clinical use, was recently found to have anti-inflammatory effects. Herein, we evaluated the effects of NDC-052 as an add-on therapy in patients with mild to moderate asthma using inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). METHOD...