A reported 30% of people worldwide have abnormal lung sounds, including crackles, rhonchi, and wheezes. To date, the traditional stethoscope remains the most popular tool used by physicians to diagnose such abnormal lung sounds, however, many problems arise with the use of a stethoscope, including the effects of environmental noise, the inability to record and store lung sounds for follow-up or...

Computerized wheeze detection is an established method for objective assessment of respiratory sounds. In infants, this method has been used to detect subclinical airway obstruction and to monitor treatment effects. The optimal location for the acoustic sensors, however, is unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of respiratory sound recordings in young infants, and to determ...

Household crowding can place young children at risk for respiratory infections which subsequently provoke asthma symptoms. However, crowding might also protect against asthma, in accordance with the hygiene hypothesis. We tested if parent-infant bed-sharing, an important dimension of household crowding, increases or decreases the risk for asthma. In a population-based prospective cohort (N = 61...

Childhood asthma is frequently perceived as a disease with uniform clinical pathways. This perception might be an oversimplification. The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence and natural course of wheeze over the first 13 yrs of life and analyse the risk factors predicting wheeze at 11-13 yrs of age. The Multicentre Allergy Study, a German birth cohort, recruited 1,314 chil...

BACKGROUND Potential health effects of the indoor environment in office buildings and aircraft have generated considerable concern in recent years. AIMS To analyse the prevalence of self reported respiratory symptoms and illnesses in flight attendants (FAs) and schoolteachers. METHODS Data were collected as part of a study of reproductive health among female FAs. The prevalences of work rel...

Our aim was to systematically review and meta-analyse longitudinal studies on antibiotic use and subsequent development of wheeze and/or asthma with regards to study quality, outcome measurement, reverse causation (RC; wheezing/asthma symptoms have caused prescription of antibiotics) and confounding by indication (CbI; respiratory tract infections leading to antibiotic use may be the underlying...

One can hypothesise diverse influences of bed-sharing practices on respiratory disease. First, the close contact between bed-sharing parents and their offspring could lead to increased transmission of infectious agents and, thus, more virus-induced wheeze in the children. Conversely, the hygiene hypothesis suggests that contact with common pathogens in early childhood might protect from later a...

Acute bronchiolitis is characterized by acute wheezing in infants or children and is associated with signs or symptoms of respiratory infection; it is rarely symptomatic in adults and the most common etiologic agent is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Usually it does not require investigation, treatment is merely supportive and a conservative approach seems adequate in the majority of childre...

BACKGROUND Asthma is a heterogeneous condition and differential effects of pet ownership on non-atopic versus atopic asthma have been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate whether pet ownership during pregnancy and early childhood was associated with wheezing from birth to age 7 years and with lung function at age 8 years in a UK population-based birth cohort. METHODS Data from t...