Bronchial thermoplasty is an endoscopic therapy for severe asthma. The previously reported, randomised sham-controlled AIR2 (Asthma Intervention Research 2) trial showed a significant reduction in severe asthma exacerbations, emergency department visits and hospitalisations after bronchial thermoplasty. More "real-world" clinical outcome data is needed.This article compares outcomes in bronchia...

Measurement ofnonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness remains largely a research tool in asthma, and its usefulness in the assessment and management of asthma is poorly defined. We StUdied the relationship of bronchial hyperresponsiveness to the clinical severity of asthma in 54 asthmatic subjects. In order to find out whether measurement of bronchial hyperresponsiveness could be used to pred...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary involvement is one of the hallmark lesions of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) as well as rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN). However, the pulmonary involvement of AAV patients seems to differ between Europe and Japan, as does the ANCA serotype. METHODS This retrospective and prospective multicenter cohort study collec...

Bronchial asthma is assumed to be the result of excessive inflammation driven by an aberrant T-helper-2 (Th2) response. Recently, it has begun to be recognized that asthma is a heterogeneous disorder. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are effective treatment for bronchial asthma; however, the inflammation in bronchial asthma cannot always be fully controlled. A recent study demonstrated a new underlying me...

A 61-year-old woman began to suffer bronchial asthma in 1985. She then developed low back pain and numbness along the lower extremities, eventually leading to bilateral drop foot in 1990. At that time, she was diagnosed as having lumbar disc hernia, and extirpation of the discs at the L3-4 and L4-5 was performed. However, her clinical condition showed little improvement. Six months later, she w...

BACKGROUND Bronchial asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder characterized by airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness, and periodic reversible airway obstruction. Subtype 2 helperT cell (T(H)2) cytokines play an important role in the development of allergic airway inflammation in patients with bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP...

Asthma with bronchial hypersecretion is a type of asthma that is poorly studied. Its pathogenesis is not well understood, but is probably related to innate impaired immunity, particularly with toll-like receptors (TLRs) and secretory mucins (MUC). OBJECTIVES 1) Define the clinical and inflammatory phenotype of asthma with bronchial hypersecretion of mucus. 2) Compare the type of mucin present...

The prevalence of asthma in children is increasing worldwide. Although the features of asthma are well documented, defining asthma remains a problem. The clinical definition of asthma does not take into account the concept of airway inflammation. A broader definition that incorporates the inflammatory process, reversibility of airway obstruction, and airway responsiveness needs to be more widel...

Beta-2-agonists continue to find a dominant role in all the current guidelines on the management of chronic persistent bronchial asthma. However, the safety of the drugs remains doubtful. Thus, there is a case for review of the "Step up-Step down" approach in the management of chronic persistent bronchial asthma. Based on the currently available experimental and clinical data on bronchial asthm...

Studies have shown that eosinophils are closely related to pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. Eosinophils release eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), which plays an important role in infection and allergic reactions. Serum ECP mRNA expression in children with bronchial asthma has not been adequately investigated. We analyzed serum ECP mRNA expression in 63 children with bronchial asthma and 21 he...