A study by researchers in Switzerland and the UK reveals that breastfeeding is linked to enhanced lung function at school age, especially in children born to asthmatic mothers. The study is published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Claudia E. Kuehni, M.D…
If the proven long-term benefits of smoking cessation are not enough to motivate young adults to stop smoking, a new study shows that 18- to 24-year olds who stop smoking for at least two weeks report substantially fewer respiratory symptoms, especially coughing…
The current system for allocating donated lungs based on proximity and not on need appears to decrease the potential benefits of lung transplantation and increase the number of patients who die waiting, researchers said at an annual meeting of thoracic surgeons in Fort Lauderdale, Fla…
An international research team may have found a way to block a second wave of death that can result from pneumonia treatment. Antibiotics are effective at killing pneumococcus - the cause of about 50 percent of pneumonias - but as it dies the bacterium releases potentially lethal toxins…
Could some cases of asthma actually be caused by an allergic reaction to a common environmental bacteria? New research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that this idea may not be as far-fetched as it seems. In a research report appearing in the February 2012 print issue, researchers show a link between common environmental bacteria and airway inflammation…
Among medical mysteries baffling many infectious disease experts is exactly how the deadly pneumonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, goes undetected in the first few day of lung infection, often until it’s too late for medical treatment. New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has opened a door to the answer. Researchers led by William E…
A UK study revealed that the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) can accurately evaluate exacerbation severity in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study is published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Dr…
According to a new Australian study published online before he print publication in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the lung clearance index (LCI) is a sensitive, non-invasive marker of early lung disease in young children with cystic fibrosis (CF)…
An assay which measures the activity of 14 genes in lung cancer tumors can accurately predict who will respond well to surgery and who will probably die within five years, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, reported in The Lancet…
An international study of asthma, published in the early online version of the European Respiratory Journal, has for the first time, included the number of incidents caused by air pollution and shows that the costs for childhood asthma have risen sharply…
