Diagnostic tests can only increase or decrease the probability of the asthma diagnosis, so a thorough history is very important. In patients with asthma-like symptoms, spirometric evidence of airway obstruction plus a large bronchodilator response makes asthma much more likely. However, normal spirometry is common in patients with mild asthma who are not symptomatic at the time of testing, and ...

The PREVIA study was designed to investigate the role of montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, in the prevention of viral-induced asthma exacerbations in children aged 2 to 5 years with a history of intermittent asthma symptoms. The study was a 12-month multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group study of patients with asthma exacerbations associated with respiratory infections and mini...

BACKGROUND Asthma imposes heavy health burden on children and families worldwide. It is a chronic inflammatory airway disease and as such, treatment of the asthmatics is aimed at relieve of bronchoconstriction and inflammation. Until about a decade ago, emphasis was on the bronchoconstriction rather than the inflammation. OBJECTIVE To determine the trend in severity of asthma in steroid naive...

Patients and methods We have studied 142 patients with asthma, diagnosed by clinical spirometric findings, attended at the Clinical Immunology outpatient service of an University Hospital. They were divided into two groups according to their asthma severity: group 1 (n=72), mild intermittent or mild persistent asthma, and group 2 (n=70) with moderate or severe asthma. They were submitted to med...

Background: Asthma is a diverse inflammatory airway illness characterized by intermittent respiratory manifestations, and inhaled steroids (ICS) constitute the foundation of all asthma management regimens. The aim this study was to examine therapeutic efficacy Budesonide (BUD) regimens for recurrent wheeze treatment in pre-schoolers.
 Methods: This retrospective randomized controlled resea...

Asthma is a serious public health problem in New York as well as the rest of the nation. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by intermittent, recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough. The airways of people with asthma often exhibit mucosal edema, epithelial disruption, and infiltration with inflammatory cells. Asthma is the mo...

OBJECTIVES To identify and characterize an association between persistent asthma and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). APPROACH AND RESULTS MESA is a longitudinal prospective study of an ethnically diverse cohort of individuals free of known CVD at its inception. The presence and severity of asthma were assessed in the MESA at examination 1...

OBJECTIVES Poorly controlled asthma imposes a considerable burden and is a serious public health problem in the developing world. A key challenge for healthcare professionals is to help patients to engage in self-management behaviours with optimal adherence to appropriate treatment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the pattern of self-management in asthmatic patients enrolled as ...

Leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) are novel medications that provide symptom control in patients with persistent asthma. Current guidelines recommend the use of LTRAs as a treatment option for patients with mild-persistent asthma of at least 12 years of age. As illustrated by the results of controlled, multicenter clinical trials with zafirlukast and montelukast, as well as studies with ...