International Health Links movement expands in the United Kingdom.

The need to strengthen health capacity in developing countries is widely documented. The World Health Organization has called for an increase in the number of health workers in all countries experiencing critical shortages, a significant scaling-up of training and more efficient use of existing health workers. Health Links, long-term mutually beneficial partnerships between UK health institutions and their counterparts in developing countries, are helping to fill these gaps.

Long-range correlations in rectal temperature fluctuations of healthy infants during maturation.

Background: Control of breathing, heart rate, and body temperature are interdependent in infants, where instabilities in thermoregulation can contribute to apneas or even life-threatening events. Identifying abnormalities in thermoregulation is particularly important in the first 6 months of life, where autonomic regulation undergoes critical development. Fluctuations in body temperature have been shown to be sensitive to maturational stage as well as system failure in critically ill patients.

Spirometry centile charts for young Caucasian children: the Asthma UK Collaborative Initiative.

Rationale: Advances in spirometry measurement techniques have made it possible to obtain measurements in children as young as 3 years of age; however, in practice, application remains limited by the lack of appropriate reference data for young children, which are often based on limited population-specific samples.

Objectives: We aimed to build on previous models by collating existing reference data in young children (aged 3-7 yr), to produce updated prediction equations that span the preschool years and that are also linked to established reference equations for older children and adults.

Methods: The Asthma UK Collaborative Initiative was established to collate lung function data from healthy young children aged 3 to 7 years.

Longitudinal evaluation of airway function 21 years after preterm birth.

Rationale: There are limited longitudinal data about respiratory morbidity and lung function after preterm birth into adulthood.

Objectives: To determine the evolution of respiratory symptoms, spirometry, and airway hyperresponsiveness of ex-preterm subjects from childhood into adulthood.

Methods: Ex-preterm subjects (median birth weight, 1,440 g; median gestation, 31.

One-year outcomes and health care utilization in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) became a global epidemic in 2003. Comprehensive information on 1-year outcomes and health care utilization is lacking. Research conducted during the SARS outbreak may help inform research planning for future public health emergencies.

Acinar structure in symptom-free adults by Helium-3 magnetic resonance.

Rationale: The apparent diffusion coefficient of hyperpolarized (3)He in the lungs has been shown to correlate directly in animal models with the peripheral airspace size and can detect changes in lung microstructure.

Objectives: To study in vivo the (3)He apparent diffusion coefficient and to demonstrate its sensitivity to changes in lung morphometry as a result of aging, exposure to cigarette smoke, and lung inflation.

Methods: We assessed the variation in the diffusion of hyperpolarized (3)He gas in the lungs by magnetic resonance techniques.

Detection of age-dependent changes in healthy adult lungs with diffusion-weighted 3He MRI.

Rationale And Objectives: To investigate changes in lung microstructure in healthy adult subjects with no smoking history using diffusion-weighted 3He MRI.

Materials And Methods: Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging using hyperpolarized helium 3 (3He) was applied to healthy volunteers to explore the dependence of lung microstructural changes with age, reflected by changes in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of 3He in lung air spaces. Data from three sites (University of Virginia (UVa), N = 25; University of Wisconsin (UW), N = 8; University of Nottingham (UN), N = 11) were combined in pooled analysis, including a total of N = 44 subjects (age range, 18-69 years; average age, 41.

Long-term safety of once-daily budesonide in patients with early-onset mild persistent asthma: results of the Inhaled Steroid Treatment as Regular Therapy in Early Asthma (START) study.

Background: The Inhaled Steroid Treatment as Regular Therapy in Early Asthma (START) study is a worldwide, randomized, prospective study to investigate early intervention with inhaled corticosteroids in recent-onset mild persistent asthma.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and tolerability of long-term treatment with once-daily budesonide therapy in patients with mild persistent asthma.

Methods: Patients aged 5 to 66 years with mild persistent asthma for fewer than 2 years and no previous regular corticosteroid treatment received budesonide or placebo once daily for 3 years, in addition to their usual asthma therapy.

Peak flow monitoring for guided self-management in childhood asthma: a randomized controlled trial.

We asked whether the addition of PEF recordings to a symptom-based self-management plan improved outcome in school children with asthma. In an open-randomized, parallel-group, controlled trial, we studied children aged 7-14 years with moderate asthma. After a 4-week run-in, 90 children were randomized to receive either PEF plus symptom-based management or symptom-based management alone for 12 weeks.