Mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene have been implicated in the onset of cystic fibrosis and other clinical respiratory disorders. In the present study, we investigated the role of CFTR variations, poly-T, TG-repeats, and M470V in susceptibility to bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis in a Chinese population in Jiangsu province, China. A total of ...

The sputum differential eosinophil/neutrophil count was done in 384 patients using Leishman staining. The patients were distributed in four groups: bronchial asthma (197 patients); chronic bronchitis with wheezing (45 patients); chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema without wheezing (73 patients); other pulmonary diseases (64 patients). Eosinophils were present in patients from all groups but mor...

Throat and bronchoscopy specimens for mycoplasma isolation studies were collected from 22 patients with chronic bronchitis and 20 patients without chronic bronchitis. Twenty-six of 50 patients attending a chronic bronchitis clinic had throat, nasal, or sputum specimens collected for attempted mycoplasma isolation, and all of these patients had multiple serum samples taken for mycoplasma antibod...

We discuss Bayesian estimation of a logistic regression model with an unknown threshold limiting value (TLV). In these models it is assumed that there is no effect of a covariate on the response under a certain unknown TLV. The estimation of these models in a Bayesian context by Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods is considered with focus on the TLV. We extend the model by accounting for me...