BACKGROUND Asthma guidelines vary in their recommendations for the initial dose of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in asthma. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to establish the optimal starting dose of ICS for asthma in adults. METHODS Randomised controlled trials comparing two doses of the same ICS in adults with asthma and no concomitant inhaled or oral corticosteroid were as...

BACKGROUND Treatment guidelines recommend the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) as first-line therapy for all stages of persistent asthma. However, it is unknown whether ICS dose reduction in adult asthmatics is compatible with maintaining asthma control. Moreover, there are no predictors of efficacy in maintaining asthma control upon ICS reduction. METHODS We recruited 90 adult patients w...

BACKGROUND Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) reduce exacerbation rates and improve health status but can increase the risk of pneumonia in COPD. The GLUCOLD study, investigating patients with mild-to-moderate COPD, has shown that long-term (2.5-year) ICS therapy induces anti-inflammatory effects. The literature suggests that cigarette smoking causes ICS insensitivity. The aim of this study is to co...

BACKGROUND Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) constitute the cornerstone of treatment for asthma. Many studies have reported beneficial short term effects of these drugs, but there are few data on the long term effects of ICS on the decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)). This study was undertaken to determine whether adults with asthma treated with ICS have a less pronounced decli...

BACKGROUND Thoracentesis and video-assisted thoracic surgery procedures can result in haemorrhage as a consequence of severing the collateral branches of the posterior intercostal artery. These branches have been shown to be most common in the 5th intercostal space (ICS). Tortuosity has been shown to be especially prevalent nearer to midline. A group of investigators have recommended the 4th an...

We reasoned that immune complex (IC)-bearing follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) promote somatic hypermutation (SHM). This hypothesis was tested in murine germinal center reactions induced in vitro by coculturing 6-day (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl) acetyl-primed but unmutated lambda+ B cells, chicken gamma-globulin (CGG) memory T cells, FDCs, and ICs (anti-CGG plus NP-CGG). Mutations in primed lambda...

then done with either placebo (n 21) or salmeterol 42 g twice daily (n 154) for 2 weeks at stable doses. Next was an ICS reduction phase over the next 8 weeks as all 21 patients on triamcinolone plus placebo were assigned to receive half the dose of triamcinolone 200 g twice daily plus continued placebo (placebo–minus group). Patients on full dose ICS plus salmeterol were randomized to either c...

Three dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) built with through-silicon vias (TSVs) have smaller footprint area, shorter wirelength, and better performance than 2D ICs. However, the quality of 3D ICs is strongly dependent on TSV dimensions and parasitics. Using large TSVs may cause silicon area overhead and reduce the amount of wirelength reduction in 3D ICs. In addition, non-negligible TSV p...