RATIONALE Chitinases are enzymes that cleave chitin, a polysaccharide contained in many parasites of humans. Recent studies in mouse models of bronchial asthma have shown that acid mammalian chitinase (AMCase) is involved in the pathophysiology of asthma. It acts downstream of interleukin-13; inhibition of AMCase leads to an abrogated T-helper cell 2 inflammation, less bronchial hyperreactivity...

Introduction. The evidence about the association between asthma and outdoor environmental factors has been inadequate for certain allergens. Even less is known about how these associations vary across seasons and climate regions. We reviewed recent literature from North America for research related to outdoor environmental factors and pediatric asthma, with attention to spatial-temporal variati...

OBJECTIVE To assess improvement in documentation of asthma indicators using the Asthma Toolbox, an asthma decision-making tool developed in accord with National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines. DESIGN Retrospective medical record review using cross-sectional, independent, random samples. Reviews were conducted for 1-year periods before and after implementation and after rev...

Background: Asthma is very common in children and its diagnosis is based on clinical manifestations, which can be misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases with similar signs and symptoms. Objective: To analyze the expression of ST2L and CD203c in the diagnosis of pediatric asthma. Methods: Basophils were purified from whole blood samples of patients and healthy controls using Ficol-Paque grad...

Pediatric Respiratory Research Opportunities Lung Growth, Development, and Repair Infectious Agents Asthma Environmental Exposure Regulation of Respiration Addiction Research Care and Impact of Chronic Respiratory Disease Cystic Fibrosis Sickle Cell Disease Other Rare Conditions Pediatric Respiratory Research Challenges Workforce Issues Few Pediatric Pulmonary Research Centers Relative Rarity o...

Background To analyze and summarize the effect of continuous care on the life quality and control of asthma of pediatric patients with asthma discharged from multiple hospitals. Methods Retrospective analysis was carried out on 172 pediatric patients with asthma aged between 6 and 11 yr old randomly selected from those admitted to five hospitals between January 2014 and December 2015. Among t...

BACKGROUND Variation in the management of acute pediatric asthma within emergency departments is largely unexplored. OBJECTIVES To investigate whether ancillary testing for patients with asthma would be associated with patient, physician, and hospital characteristics. METHODS The authors performed an analysis of a subset of patients from an extensive retrospective chart review of randomly s...