Background: Antenatal betamethasone is routinely used for the prevention of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants. However, little is known of the long term effects of exposure to antenatal betamethasone on lung function in adulthood. Methods: Five hundred and thirty four 30 year olds whose mothers had participated in the first and largest randomised controlled trial of ante...

A case-control study was conducted in central Japan to investigate the relationship between dietary intake of folate and lung function, breathlessness and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A total of 278 referred patients (244 men and 34 women) aged 50-75 years with COPD diagnosed within the past four years and 340 community-based controls (272 men and 68 women) were assessed for dy...

Although the individual contributions of smoked tobacco and indoor air pollution have been identified, there are very few studies that have characterized and measured the effects of inhaled particles from a wide range of personal, household, and community practices common in rural Asia. The objective of our study was to examine the association between environmental inhaled exposures and lung fu...

introduction: international study on asthma was conducted to study the prevalence of asthma symptoms among 13-14 year old children using written and video questionnaires during the early 90's. the aim of the present study (isaac) was to evaluate the agreement between the two questionnaires which were self-completed by the children. methods: this study, which was a part of the third phase o...

The association between occupational exposure to airway irritants and the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms and level of lung function, and whether these associations were modified by airway hyperresponsiveness, smoking, and a history of allergy were studied in 668 workers from synthetic fibre plants. Respiratory symptoms were recorded with a self administered Dutch version of the Brit...

Greece is a significant cement producing country. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of lung function impairment among Greek cement workers. One hundred thirty- seven cement production workers participated in this study. In addition, 110 employees not exposed to cement dust comprised the control group. The concentration of cement total dust at workplace var...

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to determine the prevalence of asthma-like symptoms among schoolchildren with low birth weight (LBW), and to compare the lung function of these children with that of children with normal birth weight. METHODS This was a comparative cross-sectional study. We recruited children aged 8-11 years from eight primary schools in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. The childr...

BACKGROUND Anemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in many chronic diseases. Little is known about anemia in cystic fibrosis (CF). Because the majority of patients with CF die of lung disease, the objective of this study was to identify the frequency, severity, and mechanisms of anemia in CF and to determine if there was an association between anemia and poor lung function i...