Publications by authors named "Sigrid M Heijsman"

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare the salivary cortisol response after exercise in children with asthma versus healthy children, focusing on the clinical relevance of lower basal cortisol levels in children with asthma.
  • Nineteen prepubertal children with asthma and twenty healthy counterparts underwent a standardized 20-m shuttle-run test, measuring salivary cortisol levels before, immediately after, and 15 minutes after exercise.
  • Results showed that a significantly lower percentage of asthmatic children (35.0%) exhibited an increase in salivary cortisol levels compared to healthy children (84.2%), indicating that asthmatic children on inhaled corticosteroids have a diminished cortisol response to exercise.
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Article Synopsis
  • A new childhood asthma score (CAS) was compared to standard clinical assessments to see how well it predicts the need for bronchodilator nebulization in kids with acute asthma.
  • In a study of 47 children, the CAS indicated significant differences between those who needed nebulization (higher scores) and those who didn't, with a sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 77% at a cutoff score of 4.
  • The CAS showed good inter-rater reliability, with independent raters agreeing well on their assessments, indicating that it can be a reliable tool in clinical settings.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess if standardized exercise tests can effectively evaluate adrenal response by measuring salivary cortisol levels in healthy prepubertal children.
  • During exercise tests (cycling and a running shuttle), cortisol levels showed no change or decrease immediately after, but increased significantly after the shuttle-run test at 15 minutes, indicating different responses based on the type of exercise.
  • The findings suggest that the shuttle-run test could be a practical, non-invasive way to evaluate adrenal response in healthy prepubertal children, as opposed to cycling tests which did not show the same increase in cortisol.
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Background: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and intranasal steroids (INS) are frequently co-administered in children with asthma and rhinitis. In contrast to monotherapy with ICS or INS, little is known about the safety of concurrent use of topical steroids on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in prepubertal children.

Objective: Comparison of morning salivary cortisol levels in prepubertal children using maintenance treatment with ICS with and without concurrent use of INS to steroid naïve control groups (healthy children, and children with constipation who are under pediatric care).

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