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Heart 2019 Feb 14. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

University Hospital Hairmyres, East Kilbridge, UK.

CLINICAL INTRODUCTION: A 50-year-old woman presented with an inferoposterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and underwent emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Angiography revealed acute occlusion of the circumflex and right coronary (RCA) arteries. PCI was uncomplicated. Read More

J Appl Physiol (1985) 2019 Feb 14. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Respiratory Medicine, Woolcock Institute, University of Sydney, Australia.

Respiratory system reactance (Xrs) measured by the forced oscillation technique (FOT) is theoretically and experimentally related to lung volume. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the absolute volume measured by body plethysmography includes a proportion which is inaccessible to pressure oscillations applied via the mouth - that is, a 'non-communicating' lung volume. We hypothesized that, in COPD, the presence of non-communicating lung would disrupt the expected Xrs-volume relationship when compared to plethysmographic functional residual capacity (FRC). Read More

Intern Med J 2019 Feb;49(2):273-274

Department of Respiratory Medicine and Sleep Disorders, Western Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Eur J Pharmacol 2019 Feb 10;850:8-14. Epub 2019 Feb 10.

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Corporate Pre-Clinical R&D, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A., Parma, Italy. Electronic address:

Cigarette smokers with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are less responsive to glucocorticoids (GCs). The anti-inflammatory action of GCs depends also on their ability to transactivate genes such as GC-induced leucine zipper (GILZ). We investigated the effects of aqueous cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on GILZ transactivation evoked by 17-beclomethasone monopropionate (BMP) or fluticasone propionate (FP) in the presence or absence of the long acting β2-adrenoceptor agonist (LABA) bronchodilator formoterol or salmeterol in human primary cultures of human bronchial smooth muscle cells (HBSMC). Read More

Anesth Pain Med 2018 Dec 28;8(6):e84179. Epub 2018 Nov 28.

Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju, Korea.

Introduction: Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS; or eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis) is an extremely rare autoimmune condition characterized by hypereosinophilia and vasculitis of small or medium-sized blood vessels, occurring in patients with asthma and allergic rhinitis.

Case Presentation: A 47-year-old man (height, 175.8 cm and weight, 74. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2019 Feb 1;12(2). Epub 2019 Feb 1.

Anatomic Pathology Unit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh, Malaysia.

A 30-year-old ex-smoker with a background history of childhood asthma presented with worsening shortness of breath despite receiving high doses of oral corticosteroid for pemphigus vulgaris which was diagnosed 5 years earlier. A high-resolution CT examination of the thorax reported non-specific bronchiectatic changes and revealed an incidental suprarenal mass. A subsequent CT scan confirmed a large adrenal mass with areas of necrosis and calcification. Read More

J Biomed Opt 2019 Jan;24(1):1-4

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging technology for in vivo airway and lung imaging. However, OCT lacks sensitivity to the metabolic changes caused by inflammation, which drives chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. Redox imaging (RI) is a label-free technique that uses the autofluorescence of the metabolic coenzymes NAD(P)H and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) to probe cellular metabolism and could provide complimentary information to OCT for airway and lung imaging. Read More

Respirology 2019 Jan 29. Epub 2019 Jan 29.

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Vermont Lung Center, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA.

Background And Objective: Obesity produces restrictive effects on lung function. We previously reported that obese patients with asthma exhibit a propensity towards small airway closure during methacholine challenge which improved with weight loss. We hypothesized that increased abdominal adiposity, a key contributor to the restrictive effects of obesity on the lung, mediates this response. Read More

J Allergy Clin Immunol 2019 Jan 22. Epub 2019 Jan 22.

NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. Electronic address:

Background: Asthma is a disease characterised by ventilation heterogeneity (VH). A number of studies have demonstrated that VH markers derived using impulse oscillometry (IOS) or multiple breath washout (MBW) are associated with key asthma patient related outcome measures and airways hyper responsiveness. However the topographical mechanisms of VH in the lung remain poorly understood. Read More

J Appl Physiol (1985) 2019 Jan 24. Epub 2019 Jan 24.

School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Australia.

Bronchial thermoplasty is a recent treatment for asthma in which ablative thermal energy is delivered to specific large airways according to clinical guidelines. Current practice is therefore effectively 'blind' as it is not informed by patient-specific data. The present study seeks to establish whether a patient-specific approach based on structural or functional patient data can improve outcomes and/or reduce the number of procedures required for clinical efficacy. Read More

Phys Med Biol 2019 Jan 23. Epub 2019 Jan 23.

Polaris, Academic Unit of Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND.

Image registration of lung CT images acquired at different inflation levels has been proposed as a surrogate method to map lung 'ventilation'. Prior to clinical use, it is important to understand how this technique compares with direct ventilation imaging modalities such as hyperpolarised gas MRI. However, variations in lung inflation level have been shown to affect regional ventilation distributions. Read More

Allergy Asthma Immunol Res 2019 Mar;11(2):254-266

Clinical Vaccine R&D Center and Department of Microbiology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.

Purpose: The house dust mite (HDM) is one of the most important sources of indoor allergens and a significant cause of allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Our previous studies demonstrated that flagellin B (FlaB) plus allergen as a co-treatment mixture improved lung function and inhibited eosinophilic airway inflammation through the Toll-like receptor 5 signaling pathway in an ovalbumin (OVA)- or HDM-induced mouse asthma model. In the present study, we fused the major mite allergen Derp2 to FlaB and compared the therapeutic effects of the Derp2-FlaB fusion protein with those of a mixture of Derp2 and FlaB in a Derp2-induced mouse asthma model. Read More

Clin Exp Rheumatol 2019 Jan 14. Epub 2019 Jan 14.

Division of Rheumatology and Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Objectives: The pathogenesis of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) remains poorly understood, and may overlap with eosinophilic asthma and primary hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES). The aim of this study was to analyse a panel of serum cytokines and chemokines as markers of disease activity in patients with these conditions.

Methods: The levels of 54 cytokines and chemokines were measured in the sera of 40 patients with active EGPA, 10 of these patients during inactive disease, 6 patients with HES, 8 with asthma, and 10 healthy controls. Read More

Physiol Rep 2019 Jan;7(1):e13955

CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montreal Chest Institute, Meakins-Christie Laboratories, Oscillometry Unit and Centre for Innovative Medicine, McGill University Health Centre and Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Developed over six decades ago, pulmonary oscillometry has re-emerged as a noninvasive and effort-independent method for evaluating respiratory-system impedance in patients with obstructive lung disease. Here, we evaluated the relationships between hyperpolarized He ventilation-defect-percent (VDP) and respiratory-system resistance, reactance and reactance area (A ) measurements in 175 participants including 42 never-smokers without respiratory disease, 56 ex-smokers with chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease (COPD), 28 ex-smokers without COPD and 49 asthmatic never-smokers. COPD participants were dichotomized based on x-ray computed-tomography (CT) evidence of emphysema (relative-area CT-density-histogram ≤ 950HU (RA ) ≥ 6. Read More

Case Rep Surg 2018 6;2018:2631391. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of General Surgery, Jorge Reategui Delgado Hospital, Av. Grau block 11 s/n, Piura, Peru.

We aimed to review the publications on the diagnosis of diaphragmatic eventration and report on the clinical presentation and surgical treatment of a female patient aged 17 years. The present case, though quite infrequent, shows the presence of an ectopic thoracic kidney on the right side. The clinical features included dry cough, chest pain, respiratory distress, and bronchial spasms for 4 years; additionally, the patient had episodes of bronchial asthma since her childhood. Read More

Am J Trop Med Hyg 2019 Jan 7. Epub 2019 Jan 7.

Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado.

A 23-year-old recent emigrant from Afghanistan presented in August 2017 with severe wheezing and dyspnea that required hospital admission. Her illness was associated with marked peripheral blood eosinophilia (9,900-15,600/µL; 45.2-68%), as well as mild nausea, epigastric pain, and decreased appetite. Read More

Ophthalmologe 2019 Jan 9. Epub 2019 Jan 9.

Universitäts-Augenklinik Bonn, Ernst-Abbe-Str. 2, 53127, Bonn, Deutschland.

A 37-year-old male patient presented with metamorphopsia and unilateral visual impairment with the presence of hundreds of bilateral avascular retinal pigment epithelial detachments (PEDs). The patient suffered from allergic bronchial asthma which was treated with inhaled corticosteroids. Cessation of corticosteroid treatment resulted in flattening of larger PEDs and subsequent transition to atrophic areas over time while smaller PEDs persisted and spread peripherally over an observation period of 14½ years. Read More

Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 2019 Jan 4. Epub 2019 Jan 4.

Institute for Medical Biology and Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory for Protection and Application of Special Plants in Wuling Area of China, College of Life Sciences, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, China.

Azithromycin (AZM) has been used for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, the effects and underlying mechanisms of AZM remain largely unknown. The effects of AZM on airway smooth muscles (ASMs) and the underlying mechanisms were studied using isometric muscle force measurements, the examination of lung slices, imaging, and patch-clamp techniques. AZM completely inhibited acetylcholine (ACH)-induced precontraction of ASMs in animals (mice, guinea pigs, and rabbits) and humans. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2019 Jan;98(1):e14017

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

Rationale: Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP) is rare and an idiopathic disorder. The disease has been associated with drugs, infection, or irradiation, and its relationship with asthma remains unclear.

Patient Concerns: We reported a case of a 49-year-old female patient after trastuzumab and radiation therapy for breast cancer. Read More

Lung India 2019 Jan-Feb;36(1):48-59

Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.

Background: Bronchoscopic lung cryobiopsy (BLC) is a novel technique for obtaining lung tissue for the diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases. The procedure is performed using several different variations of technique, resulting in an inconsistent diagnostic yield and a variable risk of complications. There is an unmet need for standardization of the technical aspects of BLC. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2018 Dec;97(52):e13728

Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

Child maltreatment is complicated by cultural, welfare, and socioeconomic factors. However, the relationship between child maltreatment and socioeconomic factors has not been completely understood. We investigated risk factors for child abuse and neglect in Taiwan. Read More

J Allergy Clin Immunol 2018 Dec 19. Epub 2018 Dec 19.

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address:

Background: The prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) measured in epidemiologic studies is 5% to 12%. This might be an overestimation because of overlap with other diseases, such as allergic rhinitis.

Objective: We aimed to calculate the prevalence of CRS using a combination of epidemiologically based CRS according to the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EPOS) together with sinonasal opacification on imaging. Read More

Eur Respir J 2018 Dec 21. Epub 2018 Dec 21.

The University of Sydney, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Airway Physiology and Imaging Group, Sydney, Australia.

PLoS One 2018 19;13(12):e0208337. Epub 2018 Dec 19.

Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Background: Asthma exacerbations cause lung hyperinflation, elevation in load to inspiratory muscles, and decreased breathing capacity that, in severe cases, may lead to inspiratory muscle fatigue and respiratory failure. Hyperinflation has been attributed to a passive mechanical origin; a respiratory system time-constant too long for full exhalation. However, because the increase in volume is also concurrent with activation of inspiratory muscles during exhalation it is unclear whether hyperinflation in broncho-constriction is a passive phenomenon or is actively controlled to avoid airway closure. Read More

Semin Nucl Med 2019 01 20;49(1):11-15. Epub 2018 Nov 20.

Airway Imaging and Physiology Group, The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Glebe NSW 2037; Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal North Shore Hospital, Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065.

Uneven distribution of ventilation, or ventilation heterogeneity, has been observed in asthma for over 60 years using multiple breath nitrogen washout (MBNW) studies. Ventilation heterogeneity has been known to predict airway hyperresponsiveness (the ability of the airways to constrict too easily and by too much) in asthma, which is a core physiological characteristic of this disease. SPECT ventilation imaging allows topographical analysis of changes in ventilation distribution. Read More

Hinyokika Kiyo 2018 Nov;64(11):455-458

The Department of Pathology, National Hospital Organization Osaka Minami Medical Center.

A 75-year-old man with a history of early gastric cancer, phimosis and bronchial asthma experienced pain and palpated a mass in the penis in March 2015. After 2 months, he noticed bleeding from the tumor and visited our hospital. Pelvic computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a pelvic tumor, bilateral lymphadenopathy, and para-aortic lymphadenopathy. Read More

Clin Pediatr (Phila) 2019 Mar 3;58(3):320-327. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

6 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Retrospective chart review of 248 children (1-19 years old) with tinnitus who presented to a tertiary pediatric hospital between 2006 and 2011, looking at which cofactors are predictors of pediatric tinnitus. In our review, we extracted demographics, symptoms, historical data, imaging, and laboratory results; we compared with the general population. Eighty-seven percent had normal hearing. Read More

Biomaterials 2019 Feb 18;192:429-439. Epub 2018 Jun 18.

Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China; Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, China; Key Site of National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310009, China; State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China. Electronic address:

Elimination of airway inflammatory cells is essential for asthma control. As Bcl-2 protein is highly expressed on the mitochondrial outer membrane in inflammatory cells, we chose a Bcl-2 inhibitor, ABT-199, which can inhibit airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness by inducing inflammatory cell apoptosis. Herein, we synthesized a pH-sensitive nanoformulated Bcl-2 inhibitor (Nf-ABT-199) that could specifically deliver ABT-199 to the mitochondria of bronchial inflammatory cells. Read More

J Appl Physiol (1985) 2018 Nov 30;125(5):1563-1575. Epub 2018 Aug 30.

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch , Galveston, Texas.

Sinus congestion resultant of allergic rhinosinusitis is associated with development and worsening of asthma and can result in difficulty breathing, headaches, and missed days of school and work. Quantification of sinus congestion is important in the understanding of allergic rhinosinusitis and the development of new drugs for its treatment. Noninvasive microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) was investigated in a guinea pig model of allergic rhinosinusitis to determine its utility to determine accurately the degree of sinus congestion and resolution with anti-inflammatory drug administration. Read More

Immunobiology 2018 Nov 16. Epub 2018 Nov 16.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Tropical Medicine, 108 C. R. Avenue, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India. Electronic address:

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways, increasing in prevalence worldwide. Reduced T cell apoptosis may interfere with the down-regulation of an immune response resulting in T cell accumulation contributing to the chronic inflammation of asthma. Most studies focused so far on apoptosis of eosinophils but the detailed role of T lymphocytes apoptosis in allergic diseases is unclear yet. Read More

Clin Respir J 2018 Dec;12(12):2676-2682

Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

Introduction: Recurrent hypoxia makes asthmatics at risk for pulmonary hypertension and ventricular dysfunction. Early stages of these cardiovascular diseases cannot be detected by conventional echocardiography. Tissue Doppler imaging has been introduced recently as a more sensitive and more accurate tool for investigating cardiovascular diseases. Read More

Cell Mol Immunol 2019 Jan 22;16(1):75-86. Epub 2018 Nov 22.

Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing, P.R. China.

ILC2s are implicated in asthma pathogenesis, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying their accumulation in airways. We investigated the time course of ILC2 accumulation in different tissues in murine models of asthma induced by a serial per-nasal challenge with ovalbumin (OVA), house dust mice (HDM), IL-25 and IL-33 and explored the potential roles of ILC2-attracting chemokines in this phenomenon. Flow cytometry was used to enumerate ILC2s at various time points. Read More

Eur Respir J 2019 Jan 17;53(1). Epub 2019 Jan 17.

Dept of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.

Medicine (Baltimore) 2018 Nov;97(47):e13368

Department of General and Gastroenterological Surgery.

Rationale: Hepatic portal vein gas (HPVG) is known as a sign of a lethal condition resulting from bowel necrosis. Recently, the detection rate of non-life-threatening cases of HPVG has increased due to the technological development of imaging, i.e. Read More

Curr Opin Pulm Med 2019 Mar;25(2):132-137

Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

Purpose Of Review: Early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is emerging in importance for the clinical and research settings. This review will highlight a proposed definition of early COPD, examine early and midlife factors that lead to development of early COPD and review the literature pertaining to the treatment of mild COPD to gain insight into potential therapeutic approaches for early disease.

Recent Findings: Early COPD can be defined as disease occurring in patients younger than 50 years in age with a 10-pack-year or more smoking history and abnormal spirometry, imaging or lung function decline. Read More

Biomed Opt Express 2018 Nov 15;9(11):5437-5455. Epub 2018 Oct 15.

Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.

It is challenging to recover local optic axis orientation from samples probed with fiber-based polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). In addition to the effect of preceding tissue layers, the transmission through fiber and system elements, and imperfect system alignment, need to be compensated. Here, we present a method to retrieve the required correction factors from measurements with depth-multiplexed PS-OCT, which accurately measures the full Jones matrix. Read More

Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2019 Feb 13;122(2):210-211. Epub 2018 Nov 13.

Department of Critical Care, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida.

Ann Am Thorac Soc 2018 Nov;15(Supplement_3):S184-S191

2 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, and.

Autopsy studies in fatal asthma have clearly documented the central role of airway plugging with pathologic mucus in the pathophysiology of death from asthma, but the role of mucus plugs in chronic severe asthma has been less well understood. Recently, multidetector computerized tomography imaging of the lungs has emerged as a valuable method to visualize mucus plugs in asthma. These multidetector computerized tomography data have revealed mucus plugs as a common occurrence in severe forms of asthma. Read More

Curr Opin Pulm Med 2019 Jan;25(1):79-86

Unit of Airway Inflammation, Department of Experimental Medical Research, Lund University.

Purpose Of Review: The clinical and inflammatory heterogeneity in asthma constitutes a major challenge for improved treatment. This review describes the nature of the inflammatory complexity and how it can be decoded to yield improved disease understanding and personalized treatment. The focus is on the difficult task of revealing the immunological complexity as it occurs inside diseased patient tissues. Read More

Stem Cell Res Ther 2018 Nov 8;9(1):298. Epub 2018 Nov 8.

Stem Cell Facility, DBT Centre of Excellence for Stem Cell Research, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India.

Background: Recent studies have demonstrated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as effective mitochondrial donors with therapeutic success in multiple experimental models of human disease. MSCs obtained from different tissue sources such as bone marrow (BM), adipose (AD), dental pulp (DP), and Wharton's jelly (WJ) are routinely used in clinical trials with no known study of their mitochondrial donor capacity. Here, we show for the first time that MSCs derived from different tissue sources have different mitochondrial donor properties and that this is correlated with their intrinsic respiratory states. Read More

Respir Investig 2018 Nov 24;56(6):489-496. Epub 2018 Oct 24.

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Kawahara-cho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. Electronic address:

Background: Quantitative measurement of airway dimensions using computed tomography (CT) is performed in relatively larger airways due to the limited resolution of CT scans. Nevertheless, the small airway is an important pathological lesion in lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Ultra-high resolution scanning may resolve the smaller airway, but its accuracy and limitations are unclear. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2018 Nov;97(44):e13107

Department of Radiology, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province.

Rationale: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPTI) with respiratory tract symptom is extremely rare. It is caused by autonomic oversecretion of parathyroid hormone (PTH) owing to parathyroid adenoma, hyperplasia, or tumor. The diagnosis of PHPTI often needs to be made based on medical history, clinical manifestation, laboratory tests, and imaging examination. Read More

J Aerosol Med Pulm Drug Deliv 2019 Feb 30;32(1):47-53. Epub 2018 Oct 30.

1 Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Background: Electronic cigarettes (ECIGs) are widely used, but their health effects are not well known. ECIG exposure is difficult to quantify, and a direct measurement of deposition would be beneficial to in vivo and in vitro toxicity studies. The aim of this study was to demonstrate effective radiolabeling of an ECIG. Read More

J Coll Physicians Surg Pak 2018 Nov;28(11):882-884

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Combined Military Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.

Primary tumours of the trachea are rare. Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) constitutes less than 1% of these tumours. They occasionally masquerade as asthma. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2018 Oct 25;2018. Epub 2018 Oct 25.

Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Patients with Churg-Strauss syndrome often suffer from unusual cardiac manifestations and sudden cardiac death. This differs from patients with other autoimmune disorders, who typically present with premature ischaemic heart disease. We report the case of a 56-year-old man with recurrent coronary vasospasm, including an inferoposterior ST-elevation myocardial infarction, complicated by bradycardic arrest. Read More

Magn Reson Med 2019 Mar 26;81(3):2135-2146. Epub 2018 Oct 26.

Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

Purpose: To develop a rapid Fourier decomposition (FD) free-breathing pulmonary H MRI (FDMRI) image processing and biomarker pipeline for research use.

Methods: We acquired MRI in 20 asthmatic subjects using a balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) sequence optimized for ventilation imaging. 2D H MRI series were segmented by enforcing the spatial similarity between adjacent images and the right-to-left lung volume-ratio. Read More

Am J Case Rep 2018 Oct 25;19:1267-1271. Epub 2018 Oct 25.

Universidad Espíritu Santo (UEES) (Holy Spirit University), Samborondón, Ecuador.

BACKGROUND Many conditions and triggers have been identified and associated with spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM), including asthma, strenuous exercise, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetic ketoacidosis, inhalational drugs, and other activities associated with the Valsalva maneuver. Among rare findings reported in patients with SPM is tracheal diverticulum. We present a case of SPM that on further evaluation was noted to have a tracheal diverticulum, together with a possible diagnosis of asthma. Read More

Allergy 2018 Oct 24. Epub 2018 Oct 24.

Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.

Chronic airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), together with their comorbidities, bear a significant burden on public health. Increased appreciation of molecular networks underlying inflammatory airway disease needs to be translated into new therapies for distinct phenotypes not controlled by current treatment regimens. On the other hand, development of new safe and effective therapies for such respiratory diseases is an arduous and expensive process. Read More

Zhonghua Jie He He Hu Xi Za Zhi 2018 Oct;41(10):783-786

Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510120, China.

To improve the clinical recognition of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis(EGPA) in clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment. The clinical manifestations, pathological characteristic, imaging manifestations, diagnosis and the therapy of three patients with EGPA were presented. These 3 patients had asthma-like symptoms and extrapulmonary manifestations of systemic vasculitis. Read More

Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2018 Oct 3;52(5):401-404. Epub 2018 Sep 3.

1Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Biology, Department of Radiology, Temple University Hospital, 3401 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA.

We report a case of a 29-year-old female with a history of asthma, post-partum ARDS, and pulmonary hypertension who presents with severe shortness of breath. The patient describes her shortness of breath as progressive over the past 10 years. Chest radiography and CT angiography of the thorax showed findings consistent with fibrosing mediastinitis with severe stenosis of the left main pulmonary artery. Read More