High dose rate (HDR) endobronchial brachytherapy is a palliative treatment for symptomatic airway obstruction by malignant tumours. We report a novel use of HDR brachytherapy for treating nonmalignant bronchial obstruction. The patient had a metal stent placed in a reconstructed airway after a bronchial tear to ensure patency. Granulation tissue formation in and around the stent caused symptoma...

RATIONALE Changes in the density of bronchial vessels have been proposed as a part of airway remodeling that occurs in chronic asthma. OBJECTIVES Using an established nonhuman primate model of chronic allergic asthma, we evaluated changes in vascular density as well as the contribution of bronchial epithelium to produce vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). METHODS Eight juvenile rhesu...

High dose rate (HDR) endobronchial brachytherapy is a palliative treatment for symptomatic airway obstruction by malignant tumours. We report a novel use of HDR brachytherapy for treating non-malignant bronchial obstruction. The patient had a metal stent placed in a reconstructed airway after a bronchial tear to ensure patency. Granulation tissue formation in and around the stent caused symptom...

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that encompasses three cardinal processes: T helper (Th) cell type 2 (Th2)-polarized inflammation, bronchial hyperreactivity, and airway wall remodeling. However, the link between the immune-inflammatory phenotype and the structural-functional phenotype remains to be fully defined. The objective of these studies was to evaluate the relationship be...

In bronchial asthma, respiratory virus infection involves several issues: 1) respiratory virus infection in infancy is a risk factor for, and may predispose to, the development of asthma later in life; 2) respiratory virus infection is associated with the acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma; and, 3) glucocorticosteroids (GC) are not adequate for controlling asthma-related symptoms upon respi...

The lymphatic vessels of the lung provide an important route for clearance of interstitial edema fluid filtered from pulmonary blood vessels. However, the importance of lung lymphatics for the removal of airway liquid filtered from the systemic circulation of the lung has not been demonstrated. We studied the contribution of the bronchial vasculature to lung lymph flow in anesthetized, ventilat...

Rhinoviruses cause the majority of common colds, which often provoke wheezing in patients with asthma. The precise mechanisms responsible for the rhinovirus infection-induced exacerbations of bronchial asthma remain uncertain. However, several reports have demonstrated airway hyperresponsiveness, increases in chemical mediators in airway secretions, such as kinin and histamine, and airway infla...

Bronchial thermoplasty is a non-drug procedure for severe persistent asthma that delivers thermal energy to the airway wall in a precisely controlled manner to reduce excessive airway smooth muscle. Reducing airway smooth muscle decreases the ability of the airways to constrict, thereby reducing the frequency of asthma attacks. Bronchial thermoplasty is delivered by the Alair System and is perf...