Optimizing care for children with difficult-to-treat and severe asthma through specialist paediatric asthma centres: expert practical experience and advice.

Severe asthma in children carries an unacceptable treatment burden, yet its rarity means clinical experience in treating it is limited, even among specialists. Practical guidance is needed to support clinical decision-making to optimize treatment for children with this condition.This modified Delphi convened 16 paediatric pulmonologists and allergologists from northern Europe, all experienced in treating children with severe asthma.

The light, the dark, and everything else: making sense of young people's digital gaming.

Whether gaming has a beneficial or detrimental effect on young people's lives is a defining feature in both the research and the public discussion of youth digital gaming. In this qualitative study, we draw from a thematic analysis of the experiences of 180 game players in Finland, aged 15-25 years. Utilizing the digital gaming relationship (DGR) theory, we explore how different aspects of gaming actualize in their lives, and how different features of gaming culture participation come together to form their experience.

Viral wheezing in early childhood as a risk factor for asthma in young adulthood: A prospective long-term cohort study.

Background And Aims: There is an increased risk of asthma after viral wheezing episodes in early childhood, but unfortunately, prospective longitudinal data until adulthood are mostly lacking. The aim of this cohort study was to evaluate the risk of asthma in young adulthood after hospitalization for viral wheezing episodes in early childhood.

Methods: The original cohort comprised 100 individuals aged <24 months who were hospitalized for viral wheezing episodes in 1992-1993.

An increased asthma risk continued until young adulthood after early-childhood hospitalisation for wheezing.

Aim: The aim of this cohort study was to evaluate doctor-diagnosed and self-reported asthma in young adults after early-childhood hospitalisation for wheezing.

Methods: In this prospective-controlled follow-up, questionnaires were sent to 95 subjects aged 24-28 years, who had been hospitalised for their first episodes of wheezing under 24 months of age. Fifty-eight cases and 100 controls returned the questionnaires.

Long-term health-related quality-of-life data in subjects with a history of wheezing in early childhood.

Wheezing in early childhood has implications for respiratory morbidity in later life. We evaluated respiratory health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in young adults ages 17-20 years with a history of early childhood wheezing. Between 1992 and 1993, 100 children ages < 24 months were treated in the hospital for a lower respiratory tract infection with wheezing, and we followed up this cohort.

Improving anatomical stature estimation method. The relationship between living stature and intervertebral disc thickness.

Anatomical stature estimation methods reconstruct stature for skeletal specimens by adding up the heights of skeletal elements contributing to stature. In addition, these estimations factor in a certain amount of soft tissue known as "soft tissue correction". Our study focuses on the relationship between living stature and one of the major soft tissue contributors to stature: the intervertebral disc thickness/height.

NKG2D gene variation and susceptibility to viral bronchiolitis in childhood.

Background: Genetic factors associated with bronchiolitis are inadequately characterized. We therefore inspected a selected subpopulation of our previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of bronchiolitis for overlap with known quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to identify susceptibility loci that potentially affect mRNA and protein levels.

Methods: GWAS included a Finnish-Swedish case-control population (n = 187), matched for age and site.

Genome-Wide Association Study of Polymorphisms Predisposing to Bronchiolitis.

Bronchiolitis is a major cause of hospitalization among infants. Severe bronchiolitis is associated with later asthma, suggesting a common genetic predisposition. Genetic background of bronchiolitis is not well characterized.

No association between overweight and asthma or allergy in adolescence after wheezing in infancy.

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between weight status and asthma, allergy and respiratory symptoms in adolescents with bronchiolitis in infancy.

Subjects And Methods: At age 15-18 years, a questionnaire was sent to 96 study subjects hospitalized for wheezing at age <24 months and followed up subsequently. Sixty-seven (70%) of them answered.

Adolescent asthma after rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis.

Background And Aims: Asthma risk is increased after bronchiolitis in infancy. Recent studies have suggested that the risk may be dependent on the causative virus. The aim of the study was to evaluate the asthma risk in adolescence in subjects hospitalized for rhinovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis in infancy.

Respiratory morbidity in adulthood after respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization in infancy.

A prospective >25-year follow-up study evaluated the outcome of patients hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection at <24 months of age. Questionnaires were sent to 51 study subjects and to population controls. Self-reported asthma was present in 30% of the former RSV patients, compared with 3.

Adulthood asthma after wheezing in infancy: a questionnaire study at 27 years of age.

Background: Wheezing in early childhood is a heterogeneous condition, the longterm prognosis varying from total recovery to chronic asthma. Though short-term outcome has been actively studied, there is lack of data on long-term outcome until adulthood. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of asthma at 26-29 years of age after early-life wheezing.

Antieosinophilic activity of simendans.

Simendans are novel agents used in the treatment of decompensated heart failure. They sensitize troponin C to calcium and open ATP-sensitive potassium channels and have been shown to reduce cardiac myocyte apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether simendans reduce pulmonary eosinophilia and regulate eosinophil apoptosis.

A novel technique for imaging film coating defects in the film-core interface and surface of coated tablets.

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was introduced and examined as a novel technique for imaging film-core interface and surface defects of film-coated tablets. Tablets of acetylsalicylic acid, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and lactose monohydrate were film-coated with aqueous hydroxypropyl methylcellulose using an instrumented side-vented pan coater. The film coatings were applied using 100- and 500-kPa spraying air pressures.

Influence of the aqueous film coating process on the properties and stability of tablets containing a moisture-labile drug.

The effects of an aqueous film coating process on the morphology and storage stability of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-coated tablets containing a moisture-labile model drug (acetylsalicylic acid, ASA) were evaluated using an instrumented side-vented tablet pan coater. Coating parameters studied were inlet air absolute humidity 5 g/m3 and 12 g/m3, spraying air pressure 100 kPa and 500 kPa, pan air temperature 35 degrees C and 55 degrees C, and coating solution flow rate 2.2 g/min and 7.

Development of an automation system for a tablet coater.

An instrumentation and automation system for a side-vented pan coater with a novel air-flow rate measurement system for monitoring the film-coating process of tablets was designed and tested. The instrumented coating system was tested and validated by film-coating over 20 pilot-scale batches of tablets with aqueous-based hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC). Thirteen different process parameters were continuously measured and monitored, and the most significant ones were logged for analysis.

Differences in inflammatory responses and cytotoxicity in RAW264.7 macrophages induced by Streptomyces Anulatus grown on different building materials.

Streptomyces anulatus, an indicator microbe of mold in buildings, was grown on different building materials in order to study the impact of growth conditions on the ability of the spores of this microbe to induce toxicity and inflammatory responses. The microbes were grown for 2 months on sterilized and unsterilized wood, chipboard, concrete, plaster board and mineral wool in tight glass vessels under humid conditions. The highest microbial spore concentration was detected on the sterilized mineral wool followed by the sterilized plaster board and the unsterilized mineral wool.

Pain behavior and response properties of spinal dorsal horn neurons following experimental diabetic neuropathy in the rat: modulation by nitecapone, a COMT inhibitor with antioxidant properties.

We attempted to characterize a spinal neuronal correlate of painful neuropathy induced by diabetes mellitus (DM). Pain behavior and response properties of spinal dorsal horn neurons were determined in rats with a streptozocin-induced DM. A catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor with potent antioxidant properties, nitecapone, was used in an attempt to attenuate neuropathic symptoms.

Effect of growth medium on potential of Streptomyces Anulatus spores to induce inflammatory responses and cytotoxicity in RAW264.7 macrophages.

Epidemiological studies have shown an association between microbial growth in buildings and increased risk of respiratory symptoms and disease related to inflammatory reactions in the inhabitants96. The current study examined the affects of growth conditions of Streptomyces anulatus, isolated from indoor air of a moldy building, on the inflammatory potential of spores of this microbe. Spores were harvested from 15 growth media formulations, applied to RAW264.

Inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 macrophages caused by mycobacteria isolated from moldy houses.

Mycobacterial strains (nonpathogenic Mycobacterium terrae, potentially pathogenic Mycobacterium avium-complex and Mycobacterium scrofulaceum), isolated from a moldy building, were studied with respect to their ability to stimulate macrophages (RAW264.7) to produce inflammatory mediators, and to cause cytotoxicity. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured by chemiluminescence, cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-1, IL-10) immunochemically, nitric oxide (NO) by Griess-method, expression of inducible NO-synthase (iNOS) with Western Blot analysis and cytotoxicity with MTT-test.

Effect of acute nicotine administration on striatal dopamine output and metabolism in rats kept at different ambient temperatures.

1. The effect of ambient temperature on the nicotine-induced (0.3, 0.

Nitric oxide and proinflammatory cytokines in nasal lavage fluid associated with symptoms and exposure to moldy building microbes.

Epidemiological data indicate that living or working in a moldy building is associated with increased risk of respiratory symptoms and disease related to inflammatory reactions, but biochemical evidence linking cause and effect is still scarce. The staff working in a mold-contaminated school, and a reference group without such exposure, were studied. Nasal lavage was performed and health data were collected with a questionnaire at the end of the spring term, after a 2.

Streptomyces anulatus from indoor air of moldy houses induce NO and IL-6 production in a human alveolar epithelial cell-line.

Moisture associated microbial growth in buildings may cause respiratory symptoms such as pulmonary inflammation. We studied the effects of spores of Streptomyces anulatus, commonly found in moldy buildings, on the production of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-5 (IL-5), interleukin-4 (IL-4), and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), as well as cell viability in human alveolar II type epithelial cell line (A549). Cells were exposed in vitro to S.