• Med J Islam Repub Iran
• v.27(2); May 2013
• PMC3610308

Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2013 May; 27(2): 57–61.

PMCID: PMC3610308

Effect of Zafirlukast on improving lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

Seyed Ali Javad Moosavi,1 Hanieh Raji,2 Baharak Tasorian,3 Elyas Mostafapour,4 Shahab Shahabi,5 Mohammad Purfakharan,6 and Seyed-Mohammad Fereshtehnejad7

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Abstract

Background

There is little evidence about the role of Zafirlukast (a highly selective LTD4 antagonist) in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The Zafirlukast can reduce the need for short-acting rescue β2 agonists, produce fewer exacerbations of asthma and increased quality of life as possible benefits treatment for asthma. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of Zafirlukast improvement of lung function in patients with COPD.

Methods

Twenty five patients with moderate to severe COPD, in stable phase of the disease, participated in this interventional, quasi-experimental study. All patients were received 40mg oral Zafirlukast per day for 2 weeks. Pulmonary function Test was performed both at the baseline and at the end of the study. Data were analyzed with paired t-test using SPSS v.16.

Results

The mean age of the patients was 67.29 (SD=5.56) years with the mean baseline for forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) equal to 41.79% (SD=14.96) of predicted value. After 2 weeks, the mean improvements in forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1 and FEV1/FVC were 4.75% (SD=13.18), 3.71% (SD=9.19) and 9.33(SD=27.08), respectively. Zafirlukast produced a non-significant (p>0.05) bronchodilation, with maximum mean increase in FEV1 of 0.04 lit (3%) above baseline.

Conclusion

Results showed that Zafirlukast has no considerable bronchodilatory effect in COPD. Present study consisted of a very short treatment period and it is possible that the extension of this period could possibly have more effects. Additional larger studies are needed to verify the impact of leukoterien receptor antagonists on improving the lung function in COPD patients.

Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Pulmonary Function Test, Zafirlukast

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Origins of increased airway smooth muscle mass in asthma

Rachid Berair, Ruth Saunders and Christopher E Brightling

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BMC Medicine 2013, 11:145 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-145

Published: 6 June 2013

Abstract (provisional)

Asthma is characterized by both chronic inflammation and airway remodeling. Remodeling - the structural changes seen in asthmatic airways - is pivotal in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although significant advances have been made recently in understanding the different aspects of airway remodeling, the exact biology governing these changes remains poorly understood. There is broad agreement that, in asthma, increased airway smooth muscle mass, in part due to smooth muscle hyperplasia, is a very significant component of airway remodeling. However, significant debate persists on the origins of these airway smooth muscle cells. In this review article we will explore the natural history of airway remodeling in asthma and we will discuss the possible contribution of progenitors, stem cells and epithelial cells in mesenchymal cell changes, namely airway smooth muscle hyperplasia seen in the asthmatic airways.

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Sensors 2013, 13(6), 7399-7413; doi:10.3390/s130607399

Article

Soft Stethoscope for Detecting Asthma Wheeze in Young Children

Chun Yu ¹ , Tzu-Hsiu Tsai ² , Shi-Ing Huang ³  and Chii-Wann Lin ^1,* 

¹ Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec.4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan² Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan No.1, Changde St., Taipei 106, Taiwan³ Department of Material and Chemical Research Laboratory, Industrial Technology Research Institute, 195, Sec.4, Chung Hsing Rd., Chutung, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 8 April 2013; in revised form: 20 May 2013 / Accepted: 3 June 2013 / Published: 6 June 2013

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for Globalized Healthy Living and Wellbeing)

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Abstract: Asthma is a chronic disease that is commonly suffered by children. Asthmatic children have a lower quality of life than other children. Physicians and pediatricians recommend that parents record the frequency of attacks and their symptoms to help manage their children’s asthma. However, the lack of a convenient device for monitoring the asthmatic condition leads to the difficulties in managing it, especially when it is suffered by young children. This work develops a wheeze detection system for use at home. A small and soft stethoscope was used to collect the respiratory sound. The wheeze detection algorithm was the Adaptive Respiratory Spectrum Correlation Coefficient (RSACC) algorithm, which has the advantages of high sensitivity/specificity and a low computational requirement. Fifty-nine sound files from eight young children (one to seven years old) were collected in the emergency room and analyzed. The results revealed that the system provided 88% sensitivity and 94% specificity in wheeze detection. In conclusion, this small soft stethoscope can be easily used on young children. A noisy environment does not affect the effectiveness of the system in detecting wheeze. Hence, the system can be used at home by parents who wish to evaluate and manage the asthmatic condition of their children.

Keywords: CORSA; soft sensor; respiratory sound; wheeze detection; asthma; stethoscope

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Yu, C.; Tsai, T.-H.; Huang, S.-I.; Lin, C.-W. Soft Stethoscope for Detecting Asthma Wheeze in Young Children. Sensors 2013, 13, 7399-7413.

AMA Style

Yu C, Tsai T-H, Huang S-I, Lin C-W. Soft Stethoscope for Detecting Asthma Wheeze in Young Children. Sensors. 2013; 13(6):7399-7413.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yu, Chun; Tsai, Tzu-Hsiu; Huang, Shi-Ing; Lin, Chii-Wann. 2013. "Soft Stethoscope for Detecting Asthma Wheeze in Young Children." Sensors 13, no. 6: 7399-7413.

Pharmacol Rep. 2013;65(2):525-31.

Down-regulation of thymic stromal lymphopoietin by curcumin.

Moon PD, Jeong HJ, Kim HM.

Source

Department of Pharmacology, College of Oriental Medicine, Institute of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea. hjjeong@hoseo.edu or hmkim@khu.ac.kr.

Abstract

Background: Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis. Curcumin has various effects such as antidepressant, antioxidant, antihyperglycemic, antitumor and anti-inflammatory. However, the effect of curcumin on the production of TSLP has not been clarified. Thus, we investigated how curcumin inhibits the expression and production of TSLP in the human mast cell line, HMC-1 cells. Methods: We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, luciferase assay, and caspase-1 assay to investigate the effects of curcumin. Results: The results show that curcumin inhibited the production and mRNA expression of TSLP in HMC-1 cells: the maximal inhibition rate of TSLP production by curcumin (50 μM) was 59.16 ± 4.20%. In addition, curcumin suppressed the nuclear factor-κB luciferase activity induced by phorbol myristate acetate plus A23187. In the activated HMC-1 cells, caspase-1 activity was increased, whereas caspase-1 activity was decreased by pretreatment with curcumin. Conclusion: These results suggest that curcumin can be used to treat inflammatory and atopic diseases through the suppression of TSLP.

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23744438

 

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• Mediators Inflamm
• v.2013; 2013
• PMC3655673

Mediators Inflamm. 2013; 2013: 345217.

Published online 2013 April 27. doi:  10.1155/2013/345217

PMCID: PMC3655673

Evaluation of Clinical and Immunological Responses: A 2-Year Follow-Up Study in Children with Allergic Rhinitis due to House Dust Mite

Heleen Moed, 1 ,* Roy Gerth van Wijk, 2 Rudi W. Hendriks, 3 and J. C. van der Wouden 4

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Abstract

Background. Allergic rhinitis is a disease with polarization towards Th2 and a defect of regulatory T cells. Immunological changes have been reported after immunotherapy treatment. However, there is not much known about the natural course of allergic rhinitis with respect to clinical manifestation and the relation with immunological responses. Objective. To evaluate clinical symptoms of allergic rhinitis, in relation to in vivo allergen-specific skin responses and in vitro allergen-specific effector and regulatory T cells determined at baseline and after two years. Methods. From a large trial, 59 children were randomly selected. The following variables were compared: clinical symptoms, allergen skin tests, specific IgE, T-cell proliferation, IL-5, IL-13, IFN-gamma, IL-10, TGF-beta, CD4+CD25hi cells, and Foxp3 expression.Results. Allergic symptoms had decreased after two years. Whereas skin test reactions correlated between years 0 and 2, there was no change in the size of the reaction. Also, proinflammatory reactions did not change after two years, with a positive correlation between years 0 and 2. No relevant changes were observed with respect to regulatory cells. Conclusion. Whereas, comparable to immunotherapy, allergic complaints decrease, the immunological changes of specific T-cell activity (both effector cells and regulator cells) which are observed after immunotherapy, do not change.

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The effectiveness of a structured education pulmonary rehabilitation programme for improving the health status of people with moderate and severe COPD in primary care

Thorax doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-203103

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

• Original article

The effectiveness of a structured education pulmonary rehabilitation programme for improving the health status of people with moderate and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care: the PRINCE cluster randomised trial

1. Dympna Casey1, 
2. Kathy Murphy1, 
3. Declan Devane1, 
4. Adeline Cooney1, 
5. Bernard McCarthy1,
6. Lorraine Mee1, 
7. John Newell2, 
8. Eamon O'Shea3, 
9. Carl Scarrott4, 
10. Paddy Gillespie3,
11. Collette Kirwan1, 
12. Andrew W Murphy5

+Author Affiliations

1. ¹School of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
2. ²HRB Clinical Research Facility and School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
3. ³School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
4. ⁴Statistics Mathematic and Statistics Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
5. ⁵Department of General Practice, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

1. Correspondence toDr Dympna Casey, School of Nursing & Midwifery, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland; dympna.casey@nuigalway.ie

• Received 11 December 2012
• Revised 4 April 2013
• Accepted 11 April 2013
• Published Online First 4 June 2013

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a structured education pulmonary rehabilitation programme on the health status of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Design Two-arm, cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting 32 general practices in the Republic of Ireland.

Participants 350 participants with a diagnosis of moderate or severe COPD.

Intervention Experimental group received a structured education pulmonary rehabilitation programme, delivered by the practice nurse and physiotherapist. Control group received usual care.

Main outcome measure Health status as measured by the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) at baseline and at 12–14 weeks postcompletion of the programme.

Results Participants allocated to the intervention group had statistically significant higher mean change total CRQ scores (adjusted mean difference (MD) 1.11, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.87). However, the CI does not exclude a smaller difference than the one that was prespecified as clinically important. Participants allocated to the intervention group also had statistically significant higher mean CRQ Dyspnoea scores after intervention (adjusted MD 0.49, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.78) and CRQ Physical scores (adjusted MD 0.37, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.60). However, CIs for both the CRQ Dyspnoea and CRQ Physical subscales do not exclude smaller differences as prespecified as clinically important. No other statistically significant differences between groups were seen.

Conclusions A primary care based structured education pulmonary rehabilitation programme is feasible and may increase local accessibility to people with moderate and severe COPD.

Trial registration ISRCTN52403063.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

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