Atopic dermatitis and tobacco smoke exposure during childhood and adolescence.

Background: Tobacco smoke may affect atopic dermatitis (AD) because of its known effects on humoral and cellular immunity, but prior studies lack data on disease severity and biomarkers over time.

Objective: We investigated the association between passive and active tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) during childhood and adolescence and the activity and severity of AD.

Methods: A birth cohort of 10,521 individuals was followed through adolescence as part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Multiple Nonspecific Sites of Joint Pain Outside the Knees Develop in Persons With Knee Pain.

Objective: Many persons with knee pain have joint pain outside the knee, but despite the impact and high frequency of this pain, its distribution and causes have not been studied. We undertook this study to test the hypothesis of those studying gait abnormalities who have suggested that knee pain causes pain in adjacent joints but that pain adaptation strategies are highly individualized.

Methods: We studied persons ages 50-79 years with or at high risk of knee osteoarthritis who were recruited from 2 community-based cohorts, the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study and the Osteoarthritis Initiative, and we followed them up for 5-7 years.

T(2) relaxation time measurements are limited in monitoring progression, once advanced cartilage defects at the knee occur: longitudinal data from the osteoarthritis initiative.

Purpose: To study the natural evolution of cartilage T2 relaxation times in knees with various extents of morphological cartilage abnormalities, assessed with 3 Tesla MRI from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Materials And Methods: Right knee MRIs of 245, 45- to 60-year-old individuals without radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) were included. Cartilage was segmented and T2 maps were generated in five compartments (patella, medial and lateral femoral condyle, medial, and lateral tibia) at baseline and 2-year follow-up.