Sinusitis and rhinitis among US veterans deployed to Southwest Asia and Afghanistan after September 11, 2001.

Background: Post-9/11 veterans were exposed to environmental and occupational pollutants during deployment.

Objective: Our aim was to determine associations between deployment-related exposures and sinusitis and rhinitis.

Methods: Between April 2018 and March 2020, veterans with land-based deployment after 9/11 who were living within 25 miles of 6 Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers were randomly chosen by using a Defense Manpower Data Center roster.

Translational science and related disciplines.

Translational research moves scientific discoveries and innovations across the development spectrum for a particular target or disease, trying to bridge in a multidisciplinary fashion the gap between laboratory scientific discoveries and practical, real-world applications in medicine and in healthcare. Translational research aims to move research findings across settings, specific languages, methodologies, and study designs, from laboratory to clinical practice and ultimately into community- and population-level health benefits. In contrast, translational science is a distinct field, which evolved over time toward a systematic study and practice of operationalizing the translation of content from one language, ecosystem, environment, contextual landscape, culture, discipline, area, or domain into another.

Area under the inspiratory flow-volume curve (AIN): Proposed normative values.

Rationale: Area under expiratory flow-volume curve (AEX) has been shown to be a valuable functional measurement in respiratory physiology. Area under inspiratory flow-volume loop (AIN) also shows promise in characterizing upper and/or lower airflow obstruction.

Objectives: we aimed here to develop normative reference values for AIN, able to ascertain deviations from normal.

State of the art: Alternative overlap syndrome-asthma and obstructive sleep apnea.

In the general population, Bronchial Asthma (BA) and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are among the most prevalent chronic respiratory disorders. Significant epidemiologic connections and complex pathogenetic pathways link these disorders via complex interactions at genetic, epigenetic, and environmental levels. The coexistence of BA and OSA in an individual likely represents a distinct syndrome, that is, a collection of clinical manifestations attributable to several mechanisms and pathobiological signatures.

Contribution of Obstructive Sleep Apnea to Asthmatic Airway Inflammation and Impact of Its Treatment on the Course of Asthma.

Asthma and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are very common respiratory disorders in the general population. Beyond their high prevalence, shared risk factors, and genetic linkages, bidirectional relationships between asthma and OSA exist, each disorder affecting the other's presence and severity. The author reviews here some of the salient links between constituents of the alternative overlap syndrome, that is, OSA comorbid with asthma, with an emphasis on the effects of OSA or its treatment on inflammation in asthma.

Glucocorticoid therapy in respiratory illness: bench to bedside.

Each year, hundreds of millions of individuals are affected by respiratory disease leading to approximately 4 million deaths. Most respiratory pathologies involve substantially dysregulated immune processes that either fail to resolve the underlying process or actively exacerbate the disease. Therefore, clinicians have long considered immune-modulating corticosteroids (CSs), particularly glucocorticoids (GCs), as a critical tool for management of a wide spectrum of respiratory conditions.

Sphinganine is associated with 24-h MAP in the non-sleepy with OSA.

Introduction: Excessive daytime sleepiness is a debilitating symptom of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) linked to cardiovascular disease, and metabolomic mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unknown. We examine whether metabolites from inflammatory and oxidative stress-related pathways that were identified in our prior work could be involved in connecting the two phenomena.

Methods: This study included 57 sleepy (Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) ≥ 10) and 37 non-sleepy (ESS < 10) participants newly diagnosed and untreated for OSA that completed an overnight in-lab or at home sleep study who were recruited from the Emory Mechanisms of Sleepiness Symptoms Study (EMOSS).

Area under the expiratory flow-volume curve: normative values in the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) study.

The area under the expiratory flow-volume (AEX-FV) loop has been evaluated before as a spirometric tool for assessing respiratory functional impairment. We computed the AEX-FV curves in spirometry tests performed on 20,313 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study.We analyzed 108,939 spirometry tests performed between 2007 and 2012 (5964 children; 14,349 adults).

A meta-analysis of diagnostic test performance of peripheral arterial tonometry studies.

Study Objectives: The objective of this meta-analysis was to analyze agreement in apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) determination between peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) and polysomnography (PSG) studies.

Methods: Mean AHI bias and standard deviation extracted from Bland-Altman plots reported in studies were pooled in a meta-analysis, which was then used to calculate percentage errors of limit agreement in AHI determination by PAT using PSG AHI as the reference. Individual participant data (where reported in studies) were used to compute Cohen's kappa to assess agreement between PSG and PAT on sleep apnea severity and for computing the sensitivity and specificity of PAT at different AHI thresholds using PSG AHI as the reference.

Area under the expiratory flow-volume curve: predicted values by regression and deep learning methods and recommendations for clinical practice.

Background: In spirometry, the area under expiratory flow-volume curve (AEX-FV) was found to perform well in diagnosing and stratifying physiologic impairments, potentially lessening the need for complex lung volume testing. Expanding on prior work, this study assesses the accuracy and the utility of several models of estimating AEX-FV based on forced vital capacity (FVC) and several instantaneous flows. These models could be incorporated in regular spirometry reports, especially when actual AEX-FV measurements are not available.

Assessing bronchodilator response by changes in per cent predicted forced expiratory volume in one second.

In pulmonary function testing by spirometry, bronchodilator responsiveness (BDR) evaluates the degree of volume and airflow improvement in response to an inhaled short-acting bronchodilator (BD). The traditional, binary categorization (present vs absent BDR) has multiple pitfalls and limitations. To overcome these limitations, a novel classification that defines five categories (negative, minimal, mild, moderate and marked BDR), and based on % and absolute changes in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV), has been recently developed and validated in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and against multiple objective and subjective measurements.

Area under the expiratory flow-volume curve: predicted values by artificial neural networks.

Area under expiratory flow-volume curve (AEX) has been proposed recently to be a useful spirometric tool for assessing ventilatory patterns and impairment severity. We derive here normative reference values for AEX, based on age, gender, race, height and weight, and by using artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms. We analyzed 3567 normal spirometry tests with available AEX values, performed on subjects from two countries (United States and Spain).