Few US studies have assessed racial disparities in viral respiratory hospitalizations among children. This study enrolled black and white children under 5 years of age who were hospitalized for acute respiratory illness (ARI) in 3 US counties during October–May 2002–2009. Population-based rates of hospitalization were calculated by race for ARI and laboratory-confirmed influenza and respiratory...

Welcome. During this technical seminar on acute respiratory infections I will explain why certain signs and symptoms have been selected for the assessment of a child with a cough and difficult breathing. I’ll then discuss the rationale for choosing different antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia and very severe pneumonia or very severe disease. Finally, we’ll look at the advantages, disadv...

BACKGROUND There is widespread public concern that exposure to road vehicle traffic pollution causes asthma, but epidemiological studies in developed countries have not generally confirmed a strong effect and may have underestimated the risk as a result of relatively high and widespread exposure to traffic in everyday life. AIMS To investigate the effect of living close to a traffic bearing r...

Methods This is a cross-sectional study, part of the EISL (International Study of Wheezing in Infant). The parents or legal guardians of the infant aged 1-15 months attending health centers for immunization were interviewed and administered the EISL questionnaire, a standardized and validated instrument consisting of questions on demographic characteristics, wheezing, respiratory infections and...

The purpose of this mini-review is to outline diversity of chest wall vibrations, specify biomechanical peculiarities and point out a few problems crucial for development of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of chest wall vibrations. The review considers two types of chest wall vibrations: spontaneous, induced by breathing, and forced (or artificial), induced by external vibration forces....

Studies of reduced neonatal lung function and wheezing illnesses during childhood show conflicting results. The aim of our study was to assess the association between resistance (Rrs) and compliance (Crs) of the respiratory system by using the single occlusion technique (SOT) and prospectively collected wheezing illnesses during the first 5 years of life in a large birth cohort. SOT was perform...

Many children experience pre-school or early childhood wheezing. In a significant proportion symptoms disappear as the child grows, but others have persistent and troublesome asthma which can be life-long. Tools to predict course of disease in young children are a priority for families and clinicians. This review summarizes evidence from several longitudinal population-based birth-cohort studie...

Auscultation of the lung remains an essential part of physical examination even though its limitations, particularly with regard to communicating subjective findings, are well recognised. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) Task Force on Respiratory Sounds was established to build a reference collection of audiovisual recordings of lung sounds that should aid in the standardisation of nomenc...

Asthma is a major health problem worldwide. This is the first study determining the prevalence of asthma among adults in Samsun which is situated in the centre of the Black Sea region of Turkey. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of asthma and asthmatic symptoms, and the relationships of these with age, gender and smoking behaviour in this region. A questionnaire interview adapte...

OBJECTIVES OMARC, a multimedia application designed to support the training of health care providers for the identification of common lung sounds heard in a patient's thorax as part of a health assessment, is described and its positive contribution to user learning is assessed. The main goal of OMARC is to effectively help health-care students become familiar with lung sounds as part of the ass...