No abstract available.
Ear, Middle*

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that is characterized by symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing, together with variable expiratory airflow limitation. Asthma is a heterogeneous disease involving various underlying processes that have been described based on causal or exacerbating factors, the pattern of airflow obstruction, severity of disease, pattern of cellular inflammation, and structural changes among patients with asthma. However, there is considerable overlap among these clinical variants, which are not correlated strongly with specific pathological processes or treatment responses. The Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention 2014 (GINNA 2014) emphasizes the importance of confirming the diagnosis to minimize both under- and over-treatment with respect to the heterogeneity of asthma. To assess asthma control, it is necessary to assess not only the symptom control but also the future risks of an adverse outcome. Lung function is the most used indicator of future risk. This article reviews the treatment of adult asthma, including patients already receiving treatment according to GINA 2014 and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.
Adult ; Asthma* ; Cough ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Insurance, Health ; Lung ; Pathologic Processes ; Population Characteristics ; Pulmonary Ventilation ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Respiratory Sounds ; Thorax

Intradermal gene administration was found to induce a more profound immune response than direct intramusclular gene injection. We performed intradermal vaccination of B10.PL mice with DNA encoding for the V 8.2 region of the T-cell receptors (TCR). Three weeks later, these mice were immunized with rat myelin basic protein (MBP). Daily mean clinical scores and mortality rate were lower in this group compared with controls. The proliferative responses of lymph node cells to rat MBP were slightly less in the vaccination groups than in the control groups (p<0.05). However, we detected no differences between the two groups with regard to the production of MBP-specific IgG, IgG1, & IgG2a antibodies. The levels of cytokine mRNA expression in the vaccination groups were observed higher than in the control groups without antigen-specific stimulation, but all of cytokine expressions between the vaccination and control groups after antigen-specific stimulation were identical. These results demonstrate that intradermal DNA vaccines encoding for TCR might prove to be useful in the control of autoimmune disease.
Animals ; Autoantibodies/blood ; Base Sequence ; Cytokines/genetics ; DNA, Complementary/genetics ; Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental/etiology/immunology/*prevention and control ; Female ; Gene Expression ; *Genes, T-Cell Receptor beta ; In Vitro ; Injections, Intradermal ; Lymphocyte Activation ; Mice ; Myelin Basic Proteins/immunology ; RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism ; Rats ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Vaccines, DNA/*administration and dosage/genetics

No abstract available.
Lymphadenitis*

Sleep apnea occurs in approximately 50% of patients with acromegaly, and sleep apnea is associated with increased cardiovascular diseases and mortality. In view of these findings, sleep apnea may be a factor in the increased incidence of cardiovascular deaths in acromegaly patients. We experienced a case of active acromegaly patient, 54-yr-old man, associated with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, congestive heart failure with dilated cardiomyopathy and serious cardiac arrhythmias. He was treated for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, diagnosed by overnight polysomnography, with nasal continuous positive airway pressure(CPAP) for 4 months, which successfully controlled his loud snoring, sleep apnea, nocturnal hypoxemia and apnea-related symptoms. And also he was treated for underlying acromegaly and cardiac complications with bromocriptine and cardiogenic drugs for 4 months, but still had elevated growth hormone(GH) and insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels and serious cardiac arrhythmias. We describe our experience about the effect of CPAP treatment in an active acromegaly patient associated with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and cardiac complications with review of literature.
Acromegaly* ; Anoxia ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Bromocriptine ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure* ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Incidence ; Insulin ; Mortality ; Polysomnography ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ; Snoring

No abstract available.
Histamine* ; Pneumocytes*

No abstract available.
Animals ; Catalase* ; Glutathione* ; Lung* ; Rats*

No abstract available.
Gases* ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive*

No abstract available.
Cholesterol*

No abstract available.
Eosinophils* ; Histamine*