Is there any more grotesque example of an imbalance between the cost and benefit of an immune response than anaphylaxis? On exposure to even minute amounts of material containing the offending allergen (such as peanuts), the unfortunate subject experiences within minutes a reaction that can include nausea and vomiting, hives, difficulty breathing and rapid circulatory collapse. Although anaphyl...

Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways that affects over 20 million people in the United States. It is a complex disease that involves airway infiltration by different types of cells and cell mediators causing chronic inflammation of the airway as well as hyper-responsiveness and edema. Management of asthma symptoms often requires combination therapy with multiple medications. Long-acting b...

as “a disease characterised by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing which vary in frequency and severity from person to person”. Cough and wheeze in children are one of the common presentations to a primary care physician; it is estimated that around 50% of children wheeze in some way or the other before reaching school age and most often these episodes are transient and not associa...

OBJECTIVES For the purpose of evaluation of exhaled NO as an index of airway inflammation, we assessed changes in fractional exhaled NO (FeNO) across a work shift and its relationship with respiratory complaints. MATERIAL AND METHODS Chronic and work-aggravated respiratory complaints were assessed using a questionnaire in 89 male textile workers. FeNO and spirometry were performed before and ...

Asthma is characterised by airway hyper-responsiveness and remodelling, and there is mounting evidence that alterations in the phenotype of airway smooth muscle (ASM) play a central role in these processes. Although the concept that dysregulation of ASM Ca(2+) homeostasis may underlie at least part of these alterations has been around for many years, it is only relatively recently that the avai...