Publications by authors named "Johanna M Kurz"
Background: The early life origins of chronic pulmonary diseases are thought to arise in peripheral small airways. Predictors of ventilation inhomogeneity, a proxy of peripheral airway function, are understudied in schoolchildren.
Research Question: Is the double-tracer gas single-breath washout (DTG-SBW) measurement feasible in a pediatric field study setting? What are the predictors of the DTG-SBW-derived ventilation inhomogeneity estimate in unselected schoolchildren?
Study Design And Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional field study, a mobile lung function testing unit visited participating schools in Switzerland.
Respiratory disease is common in children and strongly associated with lifestyle and environmental exposures. Thus, it is important to study the epidemiology locally. The LuftiBus in the School (LUIS) study was set up to assess the respiratory health of schoolchildren in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The lung clearance index (LCI) assesses global ventilation inhomogeneity and is a sensitive biomarker of airway function in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. We examined the association of LCI with the risk of death or lung transplantation (LTx) in individuals with CF.
Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis in a cohort of individuals with CF aged ≥5 years with LCI and forced expired volume in 1 s (FEV) measurements performed between 1980 and 2006.