On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck east Japan, following tsunami. Many people are forced to live in evacuation shelters without enough life-saving drugs. Asthma control for management of health crisis is required, because asthma exacerbation is a major cause of morbidity, can need acute care and results in death. However, it remains obscure what parameter should be used in pri...

Both environmental tobacco smoke and indoor allergens can exacerbate already established childhood albeit primarily through quite disparate mechanisms. In infancy and childhood, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure is associated with measures of decreased flow in the airways, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and increased respiratory infections, but the relationship between ETS and allergy ...

Exacerbations are a major cause of morbidity in asthma and generate high health costs. Identification and management of adults with asthma who are prone to exacerbations is of considerable importance as by this means it should be possible to reduce the number of patients who currently experience inadequately controlled disease. Exacerbations occur most frequently in individuals with severe dise...

BACKGROUND Atopy and viral respiratory tract infections synergistically promote asthma exacerbations. IgE cross-linking inhibits critical virus-induced IFN-α responses of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), which can be deficient in patients with allergic asthma. OBJECTIVE We sought to determine whether reducing IgE levels in vivo with omalizumab treatment increases pDC antiviral IFN-α respo...

EV-D68 is associated with respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Since its first isolation, EV-D68 has been detected sporadically. However, the US and Canada have experienced outbreaks of EV-D68 infections between August and December 2014. This study aimed to investigate the molecular epidemiology and clinical characteristics of EV-D68 in Chongqing, Southwestern China. From January 2012 to Novemb...

OBJECTIVES To determine the safety of sputum induction in asthmatic children and adolescents, to characterize sputum inflammatory cells while clinically stable and during exacerbation and to correlate sputum inflammatory cells with peripheral blood eosinophils, serum IgE and the degree of bronchial obstruction. METHODS Ninety-six asthmatic patients aged 6 to 18 years were recruited for the pr...

BACKGROUND In children with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma, identification of phenotypic predictors to guide selection of a controller regimen is essential. OBJECTIVE We sought to identify phenotypic characteristics having predictive value for the difference in treatment responses between twice-daily fluticasone and once-daily montelukast. METHODS Data from the Pediatric Asthma Controll...

OBJECTIVE To review the available literature on the association between acute viral respiratory tract infection and the onset of asthma exacerbations, identifying the most prevalent viruses, detection methods, as well as preventive and therapeutic aspects. SOURCES A search was conducted in PubMed, Lilacs, and SciELO databases, between the years 2002 and 2013, using the following descriptors: ...