[Development of Human Health Discoveries. 10 years results of Young Innovative Company incubation].

Medicine is evolving every day in its operating procedures and the services offered to patients, emphasizing personalized medicine, safety and medical benefits. The individual patient is more than ever the hub of healthcare organization. Medical innovation is thus a public health priority.

[Heart rate variability: a cardiometabolic risk marker with public health implications].

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a noninvasive, practical and reproducible measure of autonomic nervous system function. Although the heart is reasonably stable, the time between two beats (R-R) can be very different. HRV is the time variation between two consecutive heartbeats.

The effect of intravenous phenylephrine on airway calibre in asthma.

Tracheobronchial vasoconstriction and subsequent reduction of airway wall thickness due to the alpha 1-agonist methoxamine, might be responsible for prevention of exercise-induced asthma, and reduction of bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine increase in exercise performance in patients with impaired left ventricular function. Since bronchial wall oedema plays an important role in asthma, we have now investigated the bronchial response to the intravenously administered alpha 1-agonist, phenylephrine, in asthma of various severity. Increasing noncumulative intravenous phenylephrine doses (100 to 600 micrograms) were injected in 18 asthmatic subjects (three groups: mild asthma, mild asthma with recent acute attack, severe obstructive asthma) and in 11 control subjects.

Assessment of the severity of asthma by an expert system. Description and evaluation.

Asthmaexpert, an expert system (ES), was produced at the special request of several clinicians in order to better understand the medical decisions made clinical experts in managing an asthmatic patient. We describe and evaluate this knowledge base, focusing mainly on assessment of the severity of asthma. After compiling data from a patient, Asthmaexpert assesses the severity of the disease and identifies the trigger factors involved, suggests any further investigations that may be required, and offers a treatment strategy.

[Pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis. Long-term benefit of anti-estrogen treatments remains uncertain].

Lymphangiomyomatosis is a rare disease which affects young women of childbearing age. Ten women with pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis were treated with antiestrogen therapy from 3 to 9 years (mean time of treatment: 5.3 years).

Activation of an epithelial neurokinin NK-1 receptor induces relaxation of rat trachea through release of prostaglandin E2.

We studied the type of neurokinin (NK) receptor involved in the epithelium-dependent substance P (SP)-induced relaxation of rat trachea precontracted with serotonin (5-HT). We first compared the relaxant effects of different agonists to the three NK receptors on rat trachea in the presence (E+) and absence (E-) of the epithelium. The three agonists to the NK-1 receptor, SP, SP-O-methylester and [beta Ala4, Sar9, Met(O2)] SP(4-11), at a concentration of 1 microM induced a relaxation of 40 +/- 5, 33 +/- 4 and 31 +/- 6%, respectively in E+ segments.

Pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis. Follow-up and long-term outcome with antiestrogen therapy; a report of eight cases.

Lymphangiomyomatosis is a rare disease which affects young women of childbearing age. Eight women with pulmonary LAM were treated with antiestrogen therapy and were monitored by blood estrogen measurements along with clinical hypoestrogenic symptoms. Treatment ranged from three to nine years.

Relationship between spontaneous dyspnoea and lability of airway obstruction in asthma.

1. As marked lability of bronchial obstruction is a risk factor for asthma severity, it may influence dyspnoea, the most common subjective complaint in asthma. We therefore studied the relationship between spontaneous dyspnoea and the degree of bronchial lability, as assessed by the daily variability in peak expiratory flow rate and the bronchial responsiveness to either carbachol or salbutamol, in 33 stable symptomatic asthmatic patients.

An international clinical trial on the efficacy and safety of roxithromycin in 40,000 patients with acute community-acquired respiratory tract infections.

An ongoing eight-country study is being conducted in an unprecedented number of general practice patients with acute upper and lower respiratory tract infections to compare the efficacy and tolerance of roxithromycin 150 mg b.i.d.

Methods for clinical assessment of expectorants: a critical review.

The purpose of the paper is to discuss some aspects of the methods that are most appropriate for the clinical assessment of new expectorants. Expectorants are drugs devised to help in the removal of bronchial secretions. The evaluation of these drugs is aimed at demonstrating, in controlled trials, their efficacy, safety and, if possible, mechanism of action.

Best mode of expression of acute reversibility of airway obstruction in patients with asthma: application to a new beta-2 agonist, RU 42 173.

Lung function tests must distinguish a true drug-induced bronchial response from changes not related to the drug itself, mainly due to intra-individual variability. We compared the variability and ability to detect true drug-induced bronchodilation of 3 modes of expression of the increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (delta FEV1) following administration of a 0.25 mg single oral dose of RU 42 173, a new beta 2-agonist.

High-dose beclomethasone: oral steroid-sparing effect in severe asthmatic patients.

One hundred and twenty four patients with severe asthma requiring maintenance treatment with oral corticosteroids were included in a multicentre, double-blind, randomized study comparing the effects of inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) (250 micrograms.puff-1), beginning with 1,000 micrograms daily, vs placebo (P). Pulmonary function was assessed and dosage of prednisone and BDP (or P) were adjusted every 15 days according to a clinical score.

Effects of SK&F 104353, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, on the bronchial responses to histamine in subjects with asthma: a comparative study with terfenadine.

We compared the effects of pretreatment of 800 micrograms of inhaled Smith Kline & French (SK&F) 104353, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, and 120 mg of oral terfenadine on the bronchial responses to inhaled histamine in 12 subjects with asthma. The study took place on 3 different days and was conducted according to a double-blind, crossover, double-dummy, randomized, and placebo-controlled design. There was no difference in baseline and prechallenge FEV1 after placebo, SK&F 104353, and terfenadine administration.

Inhibition of human and rabbit platelet activation by Ketotifen.

The effects of Ketotifen and disodium cromoglycate were investigated on human and rabbit platelet activation. Ketotifen inhibited dose-dependently human and rabbit platelet aggregation. The paf-acether pathway was the most markedly influenced by Ketotifen in human and rabbit platelets (IC50 = 38.

Long-term management of reversible obstructive airways disease in adults.

The goals of the long-term management of reversible obstructive airways disease (ROAD) are to find the minimum treatment that controls symptoms, allows resumption of normal life, prevents severe attack and death, and controls airflow obstruction. ROADs include asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Although the differential diagnosis between these different entities may be difficult, they share the same possibilities of pharmacotherapy, including bronchodilator and antiinflammatory drugs.

Chronobiological study of the relationship between dyspnoea and airway obstruction in symptomatic asthmatic subjects.

1. We performed a chronobiological study of the relationship between peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and magnitude of dyspnoea in 35 symptomatic asthmatic patients to determine how accurately asthmatic subjects assess spontaneous airway obstruction and whether this accuracy varies throughout the 24 h period and depends on characteristics of the subjects or asthma. 2.

Serum thymic hormone thymulin activity is normal in children with asthma.

In asthma, it has been hypothesized that suppressor T-lymphocytes play a protective role and have been reported to be functionally abnormal. Thymic hormone thymulin plays a role in the differentiation of T-lymphocytes and plasmatic thymulin concentration and is related to the functional state of the thymus. To assess the participation of the thymus in the impairment of T-lymphocyte function, we measured plasma thymulin activity in children with allergic asthma (N = 40).

Inhaled beta adrenergic agonists and inhaled steroids in the treatment of asthma.

In summary, inhaled steroids are the treatment to be preferred for patients requiring maintenance therapy with steroids, since they cause a dramatic fall in sensitivity and reactivity of bronchial response, improve lung function to normal, reduce the diurnal variation in peak expiratory flow rates, and markedly reduce symptoms. Nevertheless they must be given at adequate dosage for a long time, associated with inhaled beta-agonists, and in more severe asthma with short courses of oral steroids.

Urinary neopterin in pulmonary sarcoidosis. Relationship to clinical and biologic assessment of the disease.

Neopterin is a metabolite of guanosine-triphosphate, released in vitro by macrophages under the control of gamma-interferon and described as a marker of T cell activation in vivo. We have compared the urinary neopterin/creatinine ratio (mumol/mol) in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis (n = 66), interstitial lung diseases other than sarcoidosis (nonsarcoid ILD, n = 35), and 45 normal control subjects. For the sarcoid population as a whole, urinary neopterin was higher (496 +/- 52 mumol/mol [mean +/- SEM]) than in control subjects (126 +/- 5 mumol/mol) (p less than 0.