Patients who have completed a treatment for severe pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) are often left with severe respiratory disability. There have been few prospective studies assessing the effect of treatment on lung function in such patients. The influence of antimicrobial chemotherapy on lung function was investigated over a six month period in patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary TB to test th...

BACKGROUND The addition of long acting inhaled beta(2) agonists is recommended at step 3 of the British guidelines on asthma management but a recent study suggested no additional benefit in children with asthma. METHODS The aim of this study was to compare, in a double blind, three way, crossover study, the effects of the addition of salmeterol 50 microg bd, salmeterol 100 microg bd, and salb...

BACKGROUND The increasing importance of pulmonary function testing in diagnosing and managing lung diseases and assessing improvement has necessitated the need for locally derived reference equations from a sample of the general Nigerian population. METHODS It was a cross sectional study in which we used linear regression models to obtain equations for reference values and lower limits of nor...

BACKGROUND Previous epidemiological studies have related mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to forced expiratory volumes (FEV(1) or FEV(0.75)) and it is unknown whether other spirometric indices might have greater predictive power. METHODS A case-control study of fatal COPD was conducted within a cohort of London civil servants who performed forced expiratory spirogra...

Introduction:- There are no studies in the literature on combination of kinesitherapy and ultrasound children with bronchial asthma. Objective:- To compare effect asthma compared to a control group without rehabilitation. Material methods:- 24 (age 9.63 ± 3.56 years) were followed for 10 days (5 as inpatients 5 outpatients). They randomized into two identical groups - physiotherapeutic control...

BACKGROUND The diagnostic use of lung function using spirometry depends on the validity of reference equations. A multitude of spirometric prediction values have been published, but in most of these studies older age groups are underrepresented. OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to establish new spirometric reference values for advanced age and to compare these to recent prediction ...

Severe idiopathic scoliosis may lead to respiratory failure, which can be treated by assisted ventilation. Twenty four patients with surgically untreated idiopathic scoliosis who had been examined in 1968 were re-examined in 1988 to assess changes in lung function and risk factors for respiratory failure. The patients were aged 15-67 years in 1968 and had a scoliotic angle of 10-190 degrees and...

INTRODUCTION The vagus nerve plays a special role in the control of respiratory system activity which represents the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system. A small bronchial innervation by the sympathetic system also is observed, and there is a significant expression of adrenergic receptors, in particular β⊂2 receptors, in the airways. The development of genetics and molecular bi...