a family history of asthma and parental smoking on airway responsiveness in early infancy. N Engl J Med 1991; 324: 1168–1173 28 Postma DS, Bleeker ER, Amelung PJ, et al. Genetic susceptibility to asthma-bronchial hyperresponsiveness coinherited with a major gene for atopy. N Engl J Med 1995; 333:894–900 29 van Herwerden L, Harrap SB, Wong ZY, et al. Linkage of high-affinity IgE receptor gene wi...

BACKGROUND Bronchial hyperreactivity is influenced by properties of the conducting airways and the surrounding pulmonary parenchyma, which is tethered to the conducting airways. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is associated with an increase in airway hyperreactivity in rats and a decrease in the volume density of alveoli and alveolar ducts. To better define the effects of VAD on the mechanical prope...

BACKGROUND We enrolled a cohort of primary schoolchildren with a history of wheeze (n = 148) in an 11-month longitudinal study to examine the relationship between ambient ozone concentrations and peak expiratory flow rate. METHODS Enrolled children recorded peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) twice daily. We obtained air pollution, meteorological and pollen data. In all, 125 children remained i...

BACKGROUND The incidence of bronchial hyperreactivity has increased to one-third of the population in developed countries, which requires the adoption of preventive and therapeutic measures. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of a traditional Mediterranean diet on patients diagnosed with childhood asthma and determine if there is a beneficial effect from this dietary i...

The aim of the present study was to assess respiratory health in professional firefighters. A total of 101 male professional firefighters from Basel, Switzerland, were included in the study. A control group consisting of 735 male subjects of the general population was composed of the Basel sample of the Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults. All subjects were administered a s...

Effects of a Kampo (Japanese herbal) medicine "shoseiryuto (SST, xiao-qing-long-tang in Chinese)", which has been used for the treatment of allergic bronchial asthma clinically, were examined on ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized allergic airway inflammation model (i.e., bronchial asthma) in a mouse. When SST was orally administered at 0.5 g kg(-1) day(-1) from day 1 to 6 after OVA inhalation, SST redu...

BACKGROUND Studies have shown that epinephrine release is impaired in patients with asthma. The pregnancy of female rats (dams) with asthma promotes in their pups the differentiation of adrenal medulla chromaffin cells (AMCCs) into sympathetic neurons, mediated by nerve growth factor, which leads to a reduction in epinephrine secretion. However, the relatedness between the alteration of AMCCs a...

Lombardi and Spedini refer interesting findings concerning the smallairways dysfunction (SAD) and bronchial hyperreactivity in nonsmoking patients with systemic sclerosis(SS). They report high prevalenceof SAD in their patients that is differentfrom what was reported in our study. We would like to note a discrepancy between the reported number of patients with a reduction in MEFss that consiste...