An official ATS clinical practice guideline: interpretation of exhaled nitric oxide levels (FENO) for clinical applications.

Background: Measurement of fractional nitric oxide (NO) concentration in exhaled breath (Fe(NO)) is a quantitative, noninvasive, simple, and safe method of measuring airway inflammation that provides a complementary tool to other ways of assessing airways disease, including asthma. While Fe(NO) measurement has been standardized, there is currently no reference guideline for practicing health care providers to guide them in the appropriate use and interpretation of Fe(NO) in clinical practice.

Purpose: To develop evidence-based guidelines for the interpretation of Fe(NO) measurements that incorporate evidence that has accumulated over the past decade.

Assessment of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein as a marker of airway inflammation in asthma.

Background: Limited data are available on the presence of a systemic measure of inflammation in asthma. One marker that has been reported is C-reactive protein (CRP).

Objective: To examine the correlation between high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) and asthma activity.

Discrepancy between clinical asthma control assessment tools and fractional exhaled nitric oxide.

Background: Asthma is an inflammatory disease, yet clinical tools that evaluate asthma control do not include measures of inflammation.

Objective: To determine the correlation between fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and each of 5 asthma control evaluation tools, namely, the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ), the Asthma Control Test (ACT), the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) goals of therapy, the Joint Task Force Practice Parameter (JTFPP) on attaining optimal asthma control, and the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines.

Methods: Patients 6 years or older who had asthma were clinically evaluated by an asthma specialist.

Rethinking asthma from business to bedside.

Objective: To explore the possible application of concepts, methods, and tools validated in the worlds of statistics, business, engineering, and system dynamics to improve insight and outcomes in asthma care.

Data Sources: Peer-reviewed articles, books, and other publications on the topic of asthma care, dating back to 1931, were retrieved using MEDLINE searches and other external sources. Searches were restricted to include only studies with human subjects and the English language as descriptors, and the terms used included the following: system dynamics, statistical process control charts, continual improvement, mental models, personal mastery, systems thinking, team learning, and shared vision.

Novel allele of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphism in Caucasian asthmatics.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate an association of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphism with asthma. eNOS intron4 variable number of tandem repeats (27 bp repeats) genotypes were determined in asthma patients and control subjects using microplate PCR. The Caucasian Asthma patients displayed three alleles while Caucasian controls displayed only two alleles.

Interleukin-10 -1082 G/A polymorphism and risk of death or bronchopulmonary dysplasia in ventilated very low birth weight infants.

IL-10 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that may have a protective role in acute lung injury. IL-10 expression is affected by a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located at position -1082 (G to A). The A allele is associated with lower IL-10 production.