Immunomodulator therapy with the thiopurine analogues azathioprine (AZA) or 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) is commonly prescribed for maintenance of remission in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Ten to twenty-five percent of patients have to withdraw from AZA or 6-MP due to adverse events that are partly explained by the relative activity of the drug metabolizing enzymes. Most of the potential major ...

We recently established a novel disease entity presented as progressive respiratory failure associated with the inhalation of humidifier disinfectants. In April 2011, we encountered a series of peripartum patients with complaints of respiratory distress of unknown etiology, which was an uncommon phenomenon. Accordingly, we created a multidisciplinary team comprising intensivists, radiologists, ...

  Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disease, which reduces the lung function and causes respiratory symptoms over time, and it is primarily associated with shortness of breath, cough and sputum production. Roflumilast, which is a long-acting selective inhibitor, reduces the anti-inflammatory effect of the main symptoms of COPD. The aim of ...

IntroductionChildren with severe asthma attack are a challenging group of patients who could be difficult to treat and leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Asthma attack severity is qualitatively estimated as mild, moderate and severe attacks and respiratory failure based on conditions such as respiration status, feeling of dyspnea, and the degree of unconsciousness. part of which ar...

The healthcare setting was important in the early spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in both Toronto and Taiwan. Healthcare workers, patients, and visitors were at increased risk for infection. Nonetheless, the ability of individual SARS patients to transmit disease was quite variable. Unrecognized SARS case-patients were a primary source of transmission, and early detection and...

Real world pandemics such as SARS 2002 as well as popular fiction like the movie Contagion graphically depict the health threat of a global pandemic and the key role of epidemic intelligence (EI). While EI relies heavily on established indicator sources a new class of methods based on event alerting from unstructured digital Internet media is rapidly becoming acknowledged within the public heal...

Background: Chemokines play important roles in inflammation and antiviral action. We examined whether polymorphisms of RANTES, IP-10 and Mig affect the susceptibility to and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, generated a great deal of attention around the ability of Canada's health system to respond to a health crisis. This event underscored a very serious reality--on the whole, Canada's health system was not prepared to quickly and efficiently deal with a health emergency. This reality was particularly clear in Canada's largest city, ...