Omalizumab therapy for asthma patients with poor adherence to inhaled corticosteroid therapy.

Background: Omalizumab, an anti-IgE monoclonal antibody, is administered by injection once or twice monthly in offices and clinics. It offers a potential alternative intervention for patients with allergic asthma that is not well controlled because of recalcitrant poor adherence to inhaled corticosteroid therapy.

Objective: To assess the effect of omalizumab therapy by measuring airway responsiveness to adenosine, a marker of allergic airway inflammation, and resource use.

Nonprescription racemic epinephrine for asthma.

Background: Inhaled racepinephrine (RE) (Asthmanefrin) became available in September 2012 as a nonprescription treatment for bronchospasm based on a 1986 US Food and Drug Administration rule. It contains 11.25 mg RE in 0.

Successful use of bronchoscopic lung insufflation to treat left lung atelectasis.

We report first use of bronchoscopic lung insufflation in a child to treat acute left lung collapse. The patient is a 6-year old male asthmatic who was hospitalized with a 2-day history of cough, chest pain, and abdominal pain. He was tachypneic and hypoxemic on room air.

Response to albuterol MDI delivered through an anti-static chamber during nocturnal bronchospasm.

Background: Decreasing electrostatic charge on valved holding chambers increases the amount of drug delivered. However, there are no data demonstrating that this increases bronchodilatation.

Objective: To investigate the influence of reducing electrostatic charge on the bronchodilator response to albuterol inhaler during nocturnal bronchospasm.

Plastic bronchitis: resolution after heart transplantation.

Plastic bronchitis (PB) is a rare cause of obstructive airway disease in patients who have undergone partially corrective surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD). The etiology of plastic bronchitis in such patients is ill-defined, and treatment is ineffective. We report resolution of PB and severe obstructive airway disease after heart transplantation in a patient with CHD.