Prediction of Asthma Exacerbations in Children.

Asthma exacerbations are common in asthmatic children, even among those with good disease control. Asthma attacks result in the children and their parents missing school and work days; limit the patient's social and physical activities; and lead to emergency department visits, hospital admissions, or even fatal events. Thus, the prompt identification of asthmatic children at risk for exacerbation is crucial, as it may allow for proactive measures that could prevent these episodes.

Improved prediction of asthma exacerbations by measuring distal airway inflammation.

Introduction: Partitioning parameters measured from exhaled nitric oxide, such as the alveolar concentration of nitric oxide (CalvNO), may provide better predictors of future asthma exacerbation than exhaled nitric oxide fraction at an expiratory flow rate of 50 mL·s−1 (FENO50). We aimed to determine whether any partitioned nitric oxide parameters were more closely associated than FENO50 with subsequent asthma exacerbations.

Methods: 68 asthmatic children (mean±sd age 9.

Murine Typhus with Marked Thrombocytopenia in a Child in Northern Greece and Literature Review.

We report a case of murine typhus in a 4-year-old boy living in northern Greece. Although the illness started with mild symptoms, a maculopapular rash appeared by the end of the first week of illness followed by marked thrombocytopenia. The detection of IgM antibodies against Rickettsia typhi in the patient's blood and a positive polymerase chain reaction result combined with sequencing confirmed the diagnosis of infection by Rickettsia typhi.

Increased expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) in patients with different forms of lung fibrosis.

Introduction: Emerging evidence supports the role of epidermal growth factor-receptor (EGFR) in fibrogenesis. The aim of our study was to investigate the expression profiles of EGFR in three forms of IIPs, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP).

Patients And Methods: Twenty newly diagnosed patients with IPF, 15 with COP, and 15 with NSIP (cellular, n = 4 and fibrotic, n = 11) were investigated.