Wheeze is an unreliable endpoint for bronchial methacholine challenges in preschool children.

Background: Onset of wheeze is the endpoint often used in the determination of a positive bronchial challenge test (BCT) in young children who cannot perform spirometry. We sought to assess several clinical endpoints at the time of a positive BCT in young children with recurrent wheeze compared to findings in school-aged children with asthma.

Methods: Positive BCT was defined in: (1) preschool children (n = 22) as either persistent cough, wheeze, fall in oxygen saturation (SpO ) of ≥5%, or ≥50% increase in respiratory rate (RR) from baseline; and (2) school-aged children (n = 22) as the concentration of methacholine (MCh) required to elicit a 20% decline in FEV (PC ).

Approaching Current and New Drug Therapies for Pediatric Asthma.

As new therapies for pediatric asthma are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, clinicians should be aware of their benefits and limitations. Accompanying these therapies are potential obstacles, including the delivery of inhaled therapies and age-specific issues regarding implementation and adherence. New insights are being added to well-established controller medications, including inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β-agonists, while new medications previously approved in adults, including tiotropium and biologics, are now being evaluated for use in children.

Determination of ethoxyquin by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and its application to the survey of residues in food products of animal origin.

An analytical method using HPLC with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FL) has been developed and applied for the survey of residue levels of ethoxyquin in a variety of food products of animal origin. HPLC was performed using a silica octadecylsilane column, butylhydroxytoluene-acetonitrile-water (0.05 + 800 + 200, v/v/v) mobile phase, and detection at excitation and emission wavelengths of 370 and 415 nm, respectively.

The Atopic Dermatitis Quickscore (ADQ): validation of a new parent-administered atopic dermatitis scoring tool.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) severity is assessed using relatively elaborate scoring systems administered by health care practitioners; modification for parent assessment or self-assessment is limited. For ongoing home-based evaluation of pediatric AD treatment and outcomes, a quick, easy-to-use, parent-administered scoring tool is essential.

Objective: To evaluate the validity and responsiveness to change of the Atopic Dermatitis Quickscore (ADQ) compared with the established, widely used Scoring Atopic Dermatitis Severity Index (SCORAD).

Rings-on-a-string chain structure in DNA.

Using fluorescence microscopy (FM), which permits the observation of single molecules, we found that a pearling structure is generated on a single long DNA molecule upon the addition of a gemini (dimeric) surfactant. This pearling structure was further investigated by performing atomic force microscopy measurements on the same DNA molecules as observed by FM. These observations revealed that the pearling structure is composed of many rings that are interconnected by elongated coil parts along a single DNA molecule, i.

Nonspecificity induces chiral specificity in the folding transition of giant DNA.

The all-or-none type DNA folding transition from a coil to globule can be differentiated by the chirality of the triamines. The fluorescent microscope observation on single DNA molecules makes it clear that the tripeptides obtained from naturally occurring basic amino acids (l-lysine or l-arginine) can compact DNA molecules at concentrations lower than those from d-isomers. Nanometer-sized beads are found in the AFM images on the folded DNA molecule.