Most children with asthma can be treated successfully with low-to-moderate doses of inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting beta-2 agonist. Those that fail to respond are a heterogeneous group. We propose that the nature and type of any steroid-resistant inflammation, the extent of any persistent airflow limitation and the extent of bronchial hyper-reactivity should be determined separately to a...

BACKGROUND The onset of diabetes causes disruption of respiratory epithelial mediators. The present study investigates whether diabetes modifies the epithelium mediated bronchial responses in hyper-reactive airway smooth muscle (ASM) primarily through nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase (COX), and epithelium derived hyperpolarizing factor (EpDHF) pathways. METHODS Experimental model of guinea p...

Although CSs (corticosteroids) demonstrate potent effects in the control of airway inflammation in asthma, many patients continue to experience symptoms and AHR (airway hyper-responsiveness) despite optimal treatment with these agents, probably due to progressive airway remodelling. Identifying novel therapies that can target airway remodelling and/or airway reactivity may improve symptom contr...

BACKGROUND Viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections in early-life are linked to the development of allergic airway inflammation and asthma. However, the mechanisms involved are not well understood. We have previously shown that neonatal and infant, but not adult, chlamydial lung infections in mice permanently alter inflammatory phenotype and physiology to increase the severity of allerg...

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...

BACKGROUND A very weak relationship has been reported between the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients with asthma and their degree of airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), evaluated in terms of sensitivity. However, this relationship still has not been sufficiently explored for bronchial reactivity indices. OBJECTIVES To analyse the relationship between bronchial reactivity and sen...

OBJECTIVE To determine the extent to which thin-section and volumetric threedimensional CT can depict airway reactivity to bronchostimulator, and to assess the effect of different airway sizes on the degree of reactivity. MATERIALS AND METHODS In eight dogs, thin-section CT scans were obtained before and after the administration of methacholine and ventolin. Cross-sectional areas of bronchi a...

Mitchell, Paul D. (West Virginia University Medical Center, Morgantown), and John M. Slack. Hyper-reactivity of rabbits sensitized with Bartonella bacilliformis. J. Bacteriol. 92:769-779. 1966.-Sensitization with viable cells of Bartonella bacilliformis increased the susceptibility of rabbits to the lethality of subsequently administered Bartonella metabolites. In animals sensitized with 3 week...

BACKGROUND It has been proposed that T helper (Th)2-driven immune deviation in early life can be countered by Th1 inducing childhood infections and that such counter-regulation can protect against allergic asthma. OBJECTIVE To test whether Th1-inducing infection with Bordetella pertussis protects against allergic asthma using well-characterized murine models. METHODS Groups of mice were sen...