Involuntary glottal closure during inspiration in muscle tension dysphonia.

Objective/hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to examine respiratory function in a group of patients with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) DESIGN: Cross-sectional analytical study.

Methods: Participants included 15 people with a diagnosis of MTD referred to speech pathology for management of their voice disorder, fiberoptic evidence of glottal or supraglottic constriction during phonation with or without posterior chink, or bowing combined and deviation in perceptual voice quality. A second group of 15 participants with no history of voice disorder served as healthy controls.

Airway mast cells and eosinophils correlate with clinical severity and airway hyperresponsiveness in corticosteroid-treated asthma.

Background: The relationship between airway inflammation and asthma severity in corticosteroid-treated asthma is unclear.

Objectives: Our purpose was to characterize the inflammatory cell profile of the airway lumen and epithelium in corticosteroid-treated asthma and to relate these findings to clinical and physiologic markers of asthma severity.

Methods: Adults (n = 20) with asthma received standardized high-dose inhaled corticosteroid therapy with beclomethasone 2000 microgram per day for 8 weeks.

Drug delivery in asthma: a comparison of spacers with a jet nebuliser.

Background: Although spacer devices are frequently used for aerosol therapy in asthma, the commonly used spacers have undergone little controlled evaluation, and their relation to nebuliser therapy is unclear.

Aims: The aims of this study were to compare three delivery methods (Breath-A-Tech spacer, Volumatic spacer and jet nebuliser) for the administration of salbutamol to reverse acute histamine induced airway narrowing in asthma (Study 1); and to assess asthma control during two weeks use of inhaled therapy via Volumatic or Breath-A-Tech spacer (Study 2).

Methods: A randomised double-blind cross-over comparison was conducted.