A 37 year old woman was admitted to the hospital with acute severe asthma, shortly followed by respiratory failure and circulatory arrest. Despite intensive cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, during which extreme arterial hypoxaemia persisted, the patient died. Postmortem examination revealed a patent foramen ovale, with a diameter of 1 cm. A severe right-to-left shunt, initiated by acute pulmonar...

ATS/ERS statement: asthma control and exacerbations 2 Consistently very poorly controlled asthma increases risk for future severe asthma exacerbations 2 The FDA and safe use of long-acting beta-agonists in the treatment of asthma 2 Thirteen-year follow-up of early intervention with an inhaled corticosteroid in patients with asthma 3 Oral prednisolone for preschool children with acute virus-indu...

backgrounds: all of long-acting β2-agonists are beneficial in maintenance treatment of asthma but their use in relieving acute asthma attacks is not well known. the aim of this study was to compare rapid bronchodilatory effects of salmeterol and formoterol in patient with moderate to severe asthma. methods: it was a randomized, double blind, cross-over study on 60 patients with moderate to seve...

Introduction . Violation of bronchial patency is a particularly urgent problem in pediatric practice, which primarily due to the increase frequency its development and occurrence young children with acute respiratory infections lower tract, lack an unambiguous unified interpretation causal factors formation pathogenetic mechanisms, as well difficulty differential diagnosis pathological conditio...

BACKGROUND Diffuse airway mucus obstruction is an important feature of severe and fatal asthma. MUC5AC and MUC5B are the principal gel-forming mucins found in airway mucus. The mucin composition of airway mucus likely affects its functional properties. METHODS We quantified the principal airway mucins MUC5AC and MUC5B in the sputum of age-matched children with acute and stable asthma and heal...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to test the association of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection with asthma in a multi-racial population, after adjustments for several potential confounding variables. METHODS Antibodies to C pneumoniae were measured by microimmunofluorescence in 123 patients with acute asthma, 1518 control subjects admitted to the same hospital with various non-cardiovascular, n...

Background—This study was designed to test the association of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection with asthma in a multiracial population, after adjustments for several potential confounding variables. Methods—Antibodies to C pneumoniae were measured by microimmunofluorescence in 123 patients with acute asthma, 1518 control subjects admitted to the same hospital with various non-cardiovascular, non-...

BACKGROUND Acute asthma exacerbations remain a common cause of hospitalisation and healthcare utilisation in South African children. AIM To update the South African paediatric acute asthma guidelines according to current evidence, and produce separate recommendations for children above and below 2 years of age. METHODS A working group of the South African Childhood Asthma Group was establis...

Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is the provision of ventilatory support without the need for an invasive airway, and has revolutionized the management of patients with diverse forms of respiratory failure. The advantages of NIV include improved patient comfort and reduced need for sedation, while avoiding the complications of endotracheal intubation, including upper airway trauma, sinusitis, otit...

STUDY OBJECTIVES There is some evidence that magnesium, when infused into asthmatic patients, can produce bronchodilation in addition to that obtained from standard treatments. This systematic review examined the effect of intravenous magnesium sulfate used for patients with acute asthma managed in the emergency department. METHODS Only randomized controlled trials were eligible for inclusion...