The value of exhaled nitric oxide to identify asthma in smoking patients with asthma-like symptoms.

Background: The fraction of nitric oxide in exhaled air (FeNO) is used in asthma diagnosis and management. Smoking reduces FeNO and 20-35% of asthmatics are smoking. However no guidelines exist on the diagnostic value of FeNO in smokers.

Effect of asthma compliance enhancement training on asthma control in patients on combination therapy with salmeterol/fluticasone propionate: a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: We investigated if a higher proportion of adults with previously uncontrolled asthma can achieve total control when given salmeterol/fluticasone propionate (50/250 microg) bid and compliance enhancement training (CET) compared to those given medication alone.

Methods: Open comparison of stable, but uncontrolled, adult asthmatics. After a 12-week treatment period on salmeterol/fluticasone propionate (period 1), patients who failed to achieve control were randomised to continuing treatment with or without CET for 12 weeks (period 2).

Disease variability in asthma: how do the patients respond?--and why?

Background And Aim: Asthma is a variable disease, and therapy should be tailored accordingly. The aim of this study was to explore patterns of self-management in response to disease variability in adult asthmatics.

Methods: Adult asthmatics (n = 509), recruited through a web-based panel, answered a questionnaire concerning asthma knowledge, compliance, and treatment, including specified treatment options, through the Internet.

Asthmatics able to step down from inhaled corticosteroid treatment without loss of asthma control have low serum eotaxin/CCL11.

Introduction: The addition of a long-acting beta2 agonist (LABA) to inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) may control asthma better than ICS alone. Eosinophil markers may predict symptom severity in asthma.

Objectives: The effect of combination treatment on moderate to severe asthmatics not selected to respond rapidly to steroid deprivation was compared with monotherapy.

[The quality of asthma treatment in Denmark. How far are we--and how far are our patients?].

Introduction: Despite the availability of safe and effective therapies for asthma, many patients have sub-optimal asthma control.

Aim: To assess the current status with regard to the treatment and monitoring of adult asthmatics and to identify factors of importance for compliance with controller therapy.

Materials And Methods: Based on information from focus group interviews, we developed a questionnaire focusing on knowledge of asthma, compliance and therapy.

[Treatment of severe asthma with anti-immunoglobulin E (Omalizumab). A new possibility in pulmonary medicine].

Xolair has recently been approved for the treatment of patients with inadequately controlled severe asthma. Three unstable atopic asthmatics, treated with high doses of inhaled steroid, nasal steoids, Montelukast or systemic corticosteroids, were offered injections with Xolair. Median IgE values were 200 kU/L.

Treatment and evaluation of patients with acute exacerbation of asthma before and during a visit to the ER in Denmark.

Background: Acute exacerbation of asthma may be life-threatening and quite often results in a visit to the emergency room (ER) or admission to a hospital. The aim was to evaluate the treatment and the quality of clinical management of asthma exacerbations, and finally, to identify the factors leading to admission.

Material And Methods: In a retrospective design, we audited the hospital records of all patients aged 18-40 years admitted to five Danish university hospitals with an acute exacerbation of asthma in 2004.

Management of asthma in adults: do the patients get what they need--and want?

Suboptimal asthma control may be caused by a combination of factors, such as nonadherence to guidelines, lack of compliance, and poor asthma education. The aim was to assess patients' knowledge of asthma and different management strategies, including patients' attitudes toward involvement in treatment decisions. The participants (n=509) were recruited from all parts of Denmark through a web-based panel (Zapera Danmarkspanel).

The patient's perspective: adherence or non-adherence to asthma controller therapy?

Study Objective: Adherence with controller therapy poses a major challenge to the effective management of persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to explore the patient-related aspects of adherence among adult asthmatics.

Design And Participants: The participants (n = 509 adult asthmatics), recruited from all parts of Denmark, answered the questionnaire concerning asthma knowledge, attitudes, adherence, and treatment through the Internet.

Use of nonaspirin NSAIDs and risk of lung cancer.

Epidemiologic evidence is conflicting regarding the potential for nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to lower the risk of lung cancer. We thus determined the incidence of lung cancer among a cohort of over 242,000 adults in Denmark who had been issued NSAID prescriptions during 1991-2002 and calculated the relative risks of this cancer according to the numbers of prescriptions received. Similar analyses were conducted among a subset with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, of whom the large majority was assumed to have been smokers, as an indirect control for smoking.