Atopic dermatitis is a common inflammatory skin condition with increasing incidence in recent decades. The mainstay of treatment has been the combination of emollients and topical corticosteroids, with the addition of systemic therapies in severe cases. New drugs such as the topical calcineurin inhibitors have shown promise in treating mild-to-severe atopic dermatitis. Other novel therapies tha...

The primary goal of allergic rhinitis (AR) treatment is to alleviate symptoms, improve quality of life and prevent comorbidities. In addition to allergen avoidance there are several pharmacologic agents available: oral and topical H 1 -antihistamines, intranasal glucocorticosteroids, leukotriene receptor antagonists, mast cell stabilizers, anticholinergic agents and decongestants. Medications u...

Madam, Rhinitis and pharyngitis are commonly occurring conditions in Pakistan, due to pollen, dust mites, exhaust from the automobiles, industrial pollution and other non-infectious causes. Most commonly it is treated symptomatically along with the drugs such as antihistamines, analgesics, antibiotics, steroids and leukotriene receptor antagonists. On average each patient spends around PKR 1000...

The bioavailability of drugs is determined by gastrointestinal physiological factors and the physicochemical property of drugs. The presence of food changes the physiological functions of gastrointestinal mucosa (e.g., gastric pH, gastric emptying, hepatic blood flow) which may lead to increase or decrease in the bioavailability of drugs. Intestinal absorption of penicillin, captopril, ciproflo...

Leukotrienes may mediate bronchoconstriction in asthma. Cysteinyl leukotriene production rises in vivo after allergen challenge, but few reports describe leukotriene concentrations in clinical asthma or in children. Using high performance liquid chromatography/radioimmunoassay, plasma and urinary leukotrienes in asthmatic children (aged 5-10 years) were measured during an acute exacerbation (pe...

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting the BCR-ABL oncoprotein in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are remarkably effective inducing deep molecular remission in most patients. However, they are less effective to eradicate the leukemic stem cells (LSC), resulting in disease persistence. Therefore, there is great need to develop novel therapeutic strategies to specifically target the LSC. In an exper...

Previous studies have demonstrated that low shear rates promote leukocyte adherence to microvascular endothelium in postcapillary venules. The objective of this study was to determine whether an accumulation of inflammatory mediators such as platelet activating factor and leukotriene B4 is responsible for shear rate-dependent leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion. Postcapillary venules (25-39 mic...

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease in which many inflammatory cells and mediators participate. Inhaled corticosteroids (ICs) are recommended as the most effective anti-inflammatory medications currently available for the treatment of asthma. However, some patients don't achieve asthma control even when these agents are used in high doses in monotherapy or in combination with long-a...

Budesonide and formoterol in a single inhaler improves asthma control compared with increasing the dose of corticosteroid in adults with mild-to-moderate asthma. Chest 2003;123:1480–7. 23. Löfdahl C-G, Reiss TF, Leff JA, et al. Randomised, placebo controlled trial of effect of a leukotriene receptor antagonist, montelukast, on tapering inhaled corticosteroids in asthmatic patients. BMJ 1999;319...

Airway mucus hypersecretion is a significant clinical and pathological feature of chronic inflammatory airway diseases. Its clinical presentations include recurrent coughing and phlegm. Airway mucus is closely associated with the occurrence, development and prognosis of chronic inflammatory airway diseases and critically affects the lung function, quality of life, hospitalization rate and morta...