A new type of pulmonary stem cell has been identified by scientists at UCLA. These cells have a potential to regenerate large damaged airways and play an important role in strengthening immunity against infectious agents and environmental toxins. Mucous secretion and clearing by the airways is a protective mechanism against pathogens and environmental toxins…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that Howard Sousa, doing business as the Artery Health Institute LLC, and DeSousa LLC, in New York, N.Y., has signed a consent decree of permanent injunction. The consent decree prohibits Sousa from distributing products with claims in the labeling to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent diseases…
Black children were four times more likely than white children to be hospitalized for a severe asthma attack in 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. For every 100,000 children age 2 to 17 hospitalized for asthma attacks, the federal agency’s data show that: 384 were black, 94 were white, and 135 were Hispanic…
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has continued its decision of not approving erlotinib for treating locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer in patients who have stable disease following platinum-based chemotherapy. This special report was recently published in the Online First edition by The Lancet Oncology…
A powerful new class of therapeutics, known as recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV), holds great potential in the fight against fatal diseases including hepatitis B, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, AIDS and pneumonia…
The American Lung Association is optimistic about the promising results of the National Cancer Institute’s National Lung Screening Trial, which indicate low-dose CT scans can have significant impact on lung cancer mortality…
Researchers from London’s Kingston University have developed a new highly-accurate blood test which can detect how much a patient’s diet could be responsible for a lack of the so-called ’sunshine vitamin’. Vitamin D deficiencies can weaken the immune system and increase the risk of cancer and osteoporosis. A team headed by Professor Declan Naughton spent five months developing the new test…
The rate of pneumonia in children caused by infection with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria has doubled over the past decade, according to a paper in the July issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Led by Dr. Maria A…
The American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) was pleased to learn that Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) has agreed to serve as Senate co-chair along with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) of the Congressional COPD Caucus. The caucus is made up of members of Congress who actively support people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease nationwide…
As major cardiac complications occur in a significant proportion of patients with community-acquired pneumonia-pneumonia contracted outside of health care settings-doctors should be more aware of this association to better inform, treat, and manage patients with this infection, especially as this form of pneumonia is the most frequent cause of infectious disease-related mortali…
