Is home spirometry useful in diagnosing asthma in children with nonspecific respiratory symptoms?

Background: Variation of lung function is considered to be a hallmark of asthma. Although guidelines recommend measuring it as a diagnostic tool for asthma, the usefulness of this approach has not been studied in children.

Aim: To assess the usefulness of home spirometry in children with nonspecific lower respiratory tract symptoms, to diagnose or exclude asthma.

Airway obstruction at time of symptoms prompting use of reliever therapy in children with asthma.

Background: In asthma treatment, doses of inhaled corticosteroids are often adapted to symptoms and need for bronchodilators. However, in cross-sectional studies in emergency room settings, lung function and respiratory symptoms are not always concordant. Available longitudinal data are based on written peak flow diaries, which are unreliable.

Writing memories with light-addressable reinforcement circuitry.

Dopaminergic neurons are thought to drive learning by signaling changes in the expectations of salient events, such as rewards or punishments. Olfactory conditioning in Drosophila requires direct dopamine action on intrinsic mushroom body neurons, the likely storage sites of olfactory memories. Neither the cellular sources of the conditioning dopamine nor its precise postsynaptic targets are known.

[Treatment of asthma in children: revised international guidelines not suitable for use in the Netherlands].

The most recent revision of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines for the treatment of asthma propose to classify and monitor the disease based on asthma control. This concept is attractive but not evidence based. Based on methodological shortcomings the revised GINA guidelines fail to meet the standards for evidence-based guidelines.

Reference values for peak flow and FEV1 variation in healthy schoolchildren using home spirometry.

Current reference values for diurnal peak flow variation in healthy children (median 8.2%; 95th percentile 31%) are so high that considerable overlap exists with those of asthmatic children. These values have been obtained using written peak flow diaries, which are unreliable.