Oxidative stress appears to have an important role in glucocorticoid insensitivity, as a crucial problem in asthma therapy. We studied the preventive effect of antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) and the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the airways in an animal model of steroid resistant acute exacerbation of asthma. Systemically sensitized Balb/C mi...

The hypothesis was that prediction of asthma exacerbations in children is possible by profiles of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a noninvasive measure of airway inflammation. The aims of the present study were to determine: 1) whether VOCs in exhaled breath are able to predict asthma exacerbations; and 2) the time course and chemical background of the most predictive VOCs. A prospec...

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of urinary leukotriene E4 (ULTE4) in asthmatic children during acute asthma exacerbation. Also, we wanted to correlate it with the total serum (TS) immunoglobulin (Ig) E level in relation to asthma severity. METHODS This prospective study was conducted in the emergency room of the Department of Pediatrics, Benha University Hospital i...

OBJECTIVE To study the effectiveness and safety of budesonide/formoterol (Symbicort) Maintenance And Reliever Therapy (Symbicort SMART, AstraZeneca, Södertalje, Sweden), a simplified management approach with one inhaler compared with conventional best practice (CBP) with multiple inhalers in patients with persistent asthma. DESIGN Open-label randomised controlled parallel group trial, 6-month...

BACKGROUND Indoor dampness increases the risk of indoor fungal growth. A complex interaction between occupant behaviors and the built environment are thought to affect indoor fungal concentrations and species diversity, which are believed to increase the risk of having asthma, exacerbation of asthma symptoms, or both. To date, no systematic review has investigated this relationship. OBJECTIVE...

Asthma is a prevalent and serious health problem in Korea. Recently, the Korean Asthma Guideline has been updated by The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (KATRD) in an effort to improve the clinical management of asthma. This guideline focuses on adult patients with asthma and aims to deliver up to date scientific evidence and recommendations to general physicians for the...

Background: While tools exist for objective cough counting in clinical studies, there is no available tool measurement practice. An artificial intelligence (AI)-based count system was recently developed that quantifies sounds collected through a smartphone application. In this prospective study, AI-based algorithm applied among real-world patients with an acute exacerbation of asthma.

RATIONALE There is a need for a readily available, non-invasive source of biomarkers that predict poor asthma control. OBJECTIVES We sought to determine if there is an association between the salivary inflammatory profile and disease control in children and adults with asthma. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, we collected demographic and clinical information from two independent popul...

BACKGROUND Thiazolidinediones are oral diabetes medications that selectively activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and have potent anti-inflammatory properties. While a few studies have found improvements in pulmonary function with exposure to thiazolidinediones, there are no studies of their impact on asthma exacerbations. Our objective was to assess whether exposure to thi...

Asthma exacerbations may be triggered by a number of atmospheric and domiciliary environmental factors as well as by those encountered in schools and workplaces. The majority of exacerbations, particularly in children, coincide with respiratory viral infections, most commonly rhinovirus. As most respiratory viruses and many aeroallergens appear in seasonal patterns, asthma exacerbations, partic...