Chronic bronchitis defies close definition, just as it has defied all attempts at prevention or cure. Its beginning is innocuous enough, being characterized by cough and clear mucoid sputum; yet this may lead to incapacitating breathlessness, heart failure and death. Pathologically the disease is disappointing in that there is no specific or diagnostic lesion, since in its early or mild stage t...

Communications to the Editor 5 Aoki T, Inoue H, Sasaki H, Shimura S. Maeda S, Tomioka M, et al. Relation between selective alveolo-bronchograms and pulmonary function tests in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease. Am Rev Respir Dis 1984; 129:465-72 6 Honda I, Shimura S, Sasaki T, Sasaki H, Takishima T, Nakamura M. Airway mucosal permeability in chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthmat...

Macrolide antibiotics like azithromycin inhibit bacterial growth and replication by interrupting protein synthesis. But azithromycin also has immunomodulatory properties.1 In the acute phase of infl ammation, azithromycin exerts an initial neutrophil degranulation effect and enhances the oxidative response that is primed by particulate stimulus, which could facilitate its antibacterial effects....

Asthma affects nearly 300 million people worldwide. The majority respond to inhaled corticosteroid treatment with or without beta-adrenergic agonists. However, a subset of 5 to 10% with severe asthma do not respond optimally to these medications. Different phenotypes of asthma may explain why current therapies show limited benefits in subgroups of patients. Interleukin-13 is implicated as a cen...

77 Summary ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels link the metabolic status of the cell to the plasma membrane potential and thus play a key role in regulating cellular excitability. KATP channel openers (KCOs) may impact positively on respiratory disease by suppressing bronchoconstriction, mucus hypersecretion, cough and airway hyperreactivity (AHR). A major recent development is the emergenc...

The results allow proposing a novel hypothesis and concept of cholesterol gallstone pathogenesis in man: cholestanol may be responsible for the cholesterol supersaturation of gallbladder bile, aseptic inflammation of the gallbladder mucus and consecutive hypersecretion of glycoprotein mucin, gallbladder hypomotility as well as for the heterogenic nucleation process and precipitation of choleste...

Pulmonary mucociliary clearance is an essential defense mechanism against bacteria and particulate matter. Mucociliary dysfunction is an important feature of obstructive lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and bronchiectasis. This dysfunction in airway clearance is associated with accelerated loss of lung function in patients with obstructive lu...