Plasma proteins elevated in severe asthma despite oral steroid use and unrelated to Type-2 inflammation.

Rationale: Asthma phenotyping requires novel biomarker discovery.

Objectives: To identify plasma biomarkers associated with asthma phenotypes by application of a new proteomic panel to samples from two well-characterised cohorts of severe (SA) and mild-to-moderate (MMA) asthmatics, COPD subjects and healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: An antibody-based array targeting 177 proteins predominantly involved in pathways relevant to inflammation, lipid metabolism, signal transduction and extracellular matrix was applied to plasma from 525 asthmatics and HCs in the U-BIOPRED cohort, and 142 subjects with asthma and COPD from the validation cohort BIOAIR.

Lung function fluctuation patterns unveil asthma and COPD phenotypes unrelated to type 2 inflammation.

Background: In all chronic airway diseases, the dynamics of airway function are influenced by underlying airway inflammation and bronchial hyperresponsiveness along with limitations in reversibility owing to airway and lung remodeling as well as mucous plugging. The relative contribution of each component translates into specific clinical patterns of symptoms, quality of life, exacerbation risk, and treatment success.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate whether subgrouping of patients with obstructive airway diseases according to patterns of fluctuation in lung function allows identification of specific phenotypes with distinct clinical characteristics.

Prevalence and Population-Attributable Risk for Chronic Airflow Obstruction in a Large Multinational Study.

The Global Burden of Disease program identified smoking and ambient and household air pollution as the main drivers of death and disability from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To estimate the attributable risk of chronic airflow obstruction (CAO), a quantifiable characteristic of COPD, due to several risk factors. The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study is a cross-sectional study of adults, aged ≥40, in a globally distributed sample of 41 urban and rural sites.

Tuberculosis transmission in the population of patients from the Krakow Region (Poland) based on the epidemiological and molecular methods.

Background: The transmission of tuberculosis may affect the incidence rate of the disease in Poland. Genetic methods are of assistance in tracing the infection transmission, identifying its sources, determining the risk groups, and focusing on the preventive actions.

Objectives: The objectives of this study lie in an assessment of tuberculosis transmission by genetic methods with the assistance of the standard epidemiologic interview.

The utility of biomarkers in diagnosis of aspirin exacerbated respiratory disease.

Background: Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is a distinct eosinophilic phenotype of severe asthma with accompanying chronic rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis, and hypersensitivity to aspirin. Urinary 3-bromotyrosine (uBrTyr) is a noninvasive marker of eosinophil-catalyzed protein oxidation. The lack of in vitro diagnostic test makes the diagnosis of AERD difficult.