Viral and non-viral episodes of wheezing in early life and the development of asthma and respiratory phenotypes among urban children.

Background: Viral wheezing is an important risk factor for asthma, which comprises several respiratory phenotypes. We sought to understand if the etiology of early-life wheezing illnesses relates to childhood respiratory and asthma phenotypes.

Methods: Data were collected prospectively on 429 children in the Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) birth cohort study through age 10 years.

Aeroallergen Sensitization, Serum IgE, and Eosinophilia as Predictors of Response to Omalizumab Therapy During the Fall Season Among Children with Persistent Asthma.

Background: Perennial aeroallergen sensitization is associated with greater asthma morbidity and is required for treatment with omalizumab.

Objective: To investigate the predictive relationship between the number of aeroallergen sensitizations, total serum IgE, and serum eosinophil count, and response to omalizumab in children and adolescents with asthma treated during the fall season.

Methods: This analysis includes inner-city patients with persistent asthma and recent exacerbations aged 6-20 years comprising the placebo- and omalizumab-treated groups in 2 completed randomized clinical trials, the Inner-City Anti-IgE Therapy for Asthma study and the Preventative Omalizumab or Step-Up Therapy for Fall Exacerbations study.

The Safety Explorer Suite: Interactive Safety Monitoring for Clinical Trials.

Background: Frequent and thorough monitoring of patient safety is a requirement of clinical trials research. Safety data are traditionally reported in a tabular or listing format, which often translates into many pages of static displays. This poses the risk that clinically relevant signals will be obscured by the sheer volume of data reported.

Enhanced plasmacytoid dendritic cell antiviral responses after omalizumab.

Background: Atopy and viral respiratory tract infections synergistically promote asthma exacerbations. IgE cross-linking inhibits critical virus-induced IFN-α responses of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), which can be deficient in patients with allergic asthma.

Objective: We sought to determine whether reducing IgE levels in vivo with omalizumab treatment increases pDC antiviral IFN-α responses in inner-city children with asthma.

The nasal methylome and childhood atopic asthma.

Background: Given the strong environmental influence on both epigenetic marks and allergic asthma in children, the epigenetic alterations in respiratory epithelia might provide insight into allergic asthma.

Objective: We sought to identify DNA methylation and gene expression changes associated with childhood allergic persistent asthma.

Methods: We compared genomic DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in African American children with persistent atopic asthma (n = 36) versus healthy control subjects (n = 36).

Pathways through which asthma risk factors contribute to asthma severity in inner-city children.

Background: Pathway analyses can be used to determine how host and environmental factors contribute to asthma severity.

Objective: To investigate pathways explaining asthma severity in inner-city children.

Methods: On the basis of medical evidence in the published literature, we developed a conceptual model to describe how 8 risk-factor domains (allergen sensitization, allergic inflammation, pulmonary physiology, stress, obesity, vitamin D, environmental tobacco smoke [ETS] exposure, and rhinitis severity) are linked to asthma severity.

Distinguishing characteristics of difficult-to-control asthma in inner-city children and adolescents.

Background: Treatment levels required to control asthma vary greatly across a population with asthma. The factors that contribute to variability in treatment requirements of inner-city children have not been fully elucidated.

Objective: We sought to identify the clinical characteristics that distinguish difficult-to-control asthma from easy-to-control asthma.

Asthma phenotypes in inner-city children.

Background: Children with asthma in low-income urban areas have high morbidity. Phenotypic analysis in these children is lacking, but may identify characteristics to inform successful tailored management approaches.

Objective: We sought to identify distinct asthma phenotypes among inner-city children receiving guidelines-based management.

From Design to Dissemination: Implementing Community-Based Participatory Research in Postdisaster Communities.

Objectives: To review how disasters introduce unique challenges to conducting population-based research and community-based participatory research (CBPR).

Methods: From 2007-2009, we conducted the Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL) Study in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in a Gulf Coast community facing an unprecedented triple burden: Katrina's and other disasters' impact on the environment and health, historic health disparities, and persistent environmental health threats.

Results: The unique triple burden influenced every research component; still, most existing CBPR principles were applicable, even though full adherence was not always feasible and additional tailored principles govern postdisaster settings.