H-plane horn antenna with enhanced directivity using conformal transformation optics.

Conformal transformation optics is employed to enhance an H-plane horn's directivity by designing a graded-index all-dielectric lens. The transformation is applied so that the phase error at the aperture is gradually eliminated inside the lens, leading to a low-profile high-gain lens antenna. The physical space shape is modified such that singular index values are avoided, and the optical path inside the lens is rescaled to eliminate superluminal regions.

Utility of single versus multiple breath washout in adult asthma.

Nitrogen multiple breath washout (N MBW) is a sensitive method to identify peripheral airway involvement in asthma, but is a time-consuming test. The N vital capacity single breath (VC SBW) test offers greater time efficiency, but concordance with N MBW is poorly understood. The prevalence of peripheral airway abnormality was determined by N MBW and N SBW tests in 194 asthmatic subjects aged 18-1 years.

Clinical characteristics of adult asthma associated with small airway dysfunction.

Suboptimal asthma control is common despite modern asthma therapy. The degree of peripheral airway involvement remains unclear and poor medication delivery to these regions might be a contributing reason for this failure in obtaining adequate symptom control. A cohort of 196 adults (median (range) age 44 (18-61) years, 109 females, 54 ex-smokers, six current smokers) with physician-diagnosed asthma were recruited from primary care.

Asthma Heredity, Cord Blood IgE and Asthma-Related Symptoms and Medication in Adulthood: A Long-Term Follow-Up in a Swedish Birth Cohort.

Cord blood IgE has previously been studied as a possible predictor of asthma and allergic diseases. Results from different studies have been contradictory, and most have focused on high-risk infants and early infancy. Few studies have followed their study population into adulthood.

Nocturnal temperature controlled laminar airflow for treating atopic asthma: a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether environmental control using nocturnal temperature controlled laminar airflow (TLA) treatment could improve the quality of life of patients with persistent atopic asthma.

Design: Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial. Setting Nineteen European asthma clinics.

Cost-effectiveness of clean air administered to the breathing zone in allergic asthma.

Introduction: Airsonett Airshower (AA) is a novel non-pharmaceutical treatment for patients with perennial allergic asthma that uses a laminar airflow directed to the breathing zone of patients during sleep. It has been shown that AA treatment in addition to optimized standard therapy significantly increases asthma-related quality of life among adolescent asthmatics. However, the cost-effectiveness of AA treatment has not yet been assessed.

Validation of an algorithm for chronic periodontitis risk assessment and prognostication: analysis of an inflammatory reactivity test and selected risk predictors.

Background: Patients with severe forms of chronic periodontitis present with varying degrees of decreased inflammatory reactivity. A previously reported algorithm for chronic periodontitis risk assessment and prognostication is based on the analysis of some 20 risk predictors. One of these predictors is a skin provocation test that assesses the individual patient's reactivity to a lipid A challenge.

Validation of an algorithm for chronic periodontitis risk assessment and prognostication: risk predictors, explanatory values, measures of quality, and clinical use.

Background: The American Academy of Periodontology has recently stated that, "[risk assessment will become] increasingly important in periodontal treatment planning and should be part of every comprehensive dental and periodontal evaluation." (J Periodontol 2006;77:1608). Unaided risk assessment and prognostication show significant variability because chronic periodontitis is a multifactorial disease.

Why are some children with early onset of asthma getting better over the years?--diagnostic failure or salutogenetic factors.

Among children earlier having been identified with a hospital or primary care diagnosis of asthma at least once between 0-7 years of age, almost 40 % of their parents reported in the ISAAC-questionnaire as never having had asthma (NA). These are further analysed and compared with the persisting asthma cases (A) in this study. All these children's medical records were scrutinized concerning their asthma diagnose retrospectively.

Clinical effects of purified air administered to the breathing zone in allergic asthma: A double-blind randomized cross-over trial.

Background: Exposure to inhaled allergens is a pathogenetic factor in allergic asthma. However, most studies that previously looked at air cleaning devices have shown little or no effect on patients with perennial allergic asthma.

Aims And Objectives: We examined a novel treatment using temperature regulated laminar airflow with a very low particle concentration directed to the breathing zone of teenagers and young adults with mild to moderate allergic asthma during night sleep.

Downregulation of CXCR6 and CXCR3 in lymphocytes from birch-allergic patients.

Preferential expression of chemokine receptors on Th1 or Th2 T-helper cells has mostly been studied in cell lines generated in vitro or in animal models; however, results are less well characterized in humans. We determined T-cell responses through chemokine receptor expression on lymphocytes, and cytokine secretion in plasma from birch-allergic and healthy subjects. The expression of CCR2, CCR3, CCR4, CCR5, CCR7, CXCR3, CXCR4, CXCR6, IL-12 and IL-18R receptors was studied on CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells from birch-allergic (n = 14) and healthy (n = 14) subjects by flow cytometry.

Comparable morning versus evening administration of once-daily mometasone furoate dry powder inhaler.

Background: The control of daytime and nighttime symptoms is an important measure of effectiveness of asthma therapy, especially, when administered once-daily.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of evening and morning administrations of mometasone furoate administered via a dry powder inhaler (MF-DPI) 400 microg once-daily (QD) to show equivalence.

Methods: Open-label, randomized, parallel-group study in adult patients with mild to moderate asthma with a > or = 3-month history of ICS use.

Impaired maturation of monocyte-derived dendritic cells from birch allergic individuals in association with birch-specific immune responses.

Optimal activation of T lymphocytes requires a costimulatory signal provided by the interaction of molecules on the surface of T cells with their ligands expressed on dendritic cells (DC). We investigated whether DC differentiated from monocytes from healthy and birch allergic asthmatic individuals and further maturated by stimulation with cat and birch allergens and LPS differ in their phenotypic receptor expression. Similar expression of DC surface markers, including HLA-DR, CD80, CD86, CD83, CD1a and CD11c, was detected in monocyte-derived DC from allergic and healthy individuals.

Apoptotic eosinophils in sputum from asthmatic patients correlate negatively with levels of IL-5 and eotaxin.

Background: Eosinophilic inflammation of the airways is a key characteristic of asthma. A defect in eosinophil apoptosis might contribute to the chronic tissue eosinophilia associated with asthma.

Objective: Our purpose was to examine whether the occurrence of apoptotic eosinophils in induced sputum from asthmatic patients correlate with interleukin (IL)-5 and eotaxin.

Formoterol as needed with or without budesonide in patients with intermittent asthma and raised NO levels in exhaled air: A SOMA study.

Patients with mild intermittent asthma sometimes show signs of inflammation, and guidelines suggesting bronchodilator therapy alone as needed may be questioned. The current study compared as-needed use of a rapid-acting beta2-agonist with as-needed use of a beta2-agonist and corticosteroid combination as the only medication in asthma patients with intermittent symptoms. A total of 92 nonsmoking asthma patients (of 187 screened) using only an inhaled beta2-agonist as needed (28 males, 64 females; mean age 37 yrs; mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 101% predicted, mean reversibility 6.

The impact of repeated spirometry and smoking cessation advice on smokers with mild COPD.

Background: Smoking cessation is the most important therapeutic intervention in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and the health benefits are immediate and substantial. Major efforts have been made to develop methods with high smoking cessation rates.

Objectives: To study whether a combination of spirometry and brief smoking cessation advice to smokers with COPD, annually for three years, increased their smoking cessation rate in comparison with groups of smokers with normal lung function.

Bronchial hyper-responsiveness predicts the development of mild clinical asthma within 2 yr in school children with hay-fever.

In children with mild asthma, symptoms are not always apparent. Therefore, results of tests play an important role for the diagnosis. First, to investigate whether children with bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) but no symptoms of asthma in 1992 had developed clinical asthma at follow up in 1994.

Clinically diagnosed childhood asthma and follow-up of symptoms in a Swedish case control study.

Background: Childhood asthma has risen dramatically not only in the western societies and now forms a major and still increasing public health problem. The aims of this study were to follow up at the age of ten the patterns of asthma symptoms and associations among children with a clinically diagnosed asthma in a sizeable urban-rural community and to in compare them with demographic controls using a standardised questionnaire.

Methods: In a defined region in Sweden with a population of about 150,000 inhabitants, all children (n = 2,104) born in 1990 were recorded.

Urinary inflammatory mediators and inhalation of hypertonic saline in children.

Background: The inflammatory mechanisms of hypertonic saline-induced bronchoconstriction are not well understood.

Methods: Seventeen asthmatics with (n=11) and without bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) (n=6) and 18 randomly selected nonatopic nonasthmatic controls without BHR were evaluated by urine samples collected before and 1 h after hypertonic saline provocation test. Histamine, 11beta-PGF2alpha, and LTE4 were analysed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and eosinophil protein X (EPX) by radioimmunoassay (RIA).

Prevalence and incidence of asthma related to waist circumference and BMI in a Swedish community sample.

Both asthma and obesity have become more common in affluent societies during the recent decades and several studies have shown a correlation between the presence of asthma and obesity. In order to further study this association we have investigated a population from a community in southern Sweden, where almost all inhabitants had their body indices measured as part of a study on diabetes at a primary care centre. An asthma unit working with a structured care programme for asthma was available.

Voice problems as side effects of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma patients--a prevalence study.

Voice disturbances in asthma patients may be caused by inhaled corticosteroids. In order to study the prevalence of such voice disturbances, a questionnaire was delivered to asthma patients at three asthma and allergy departments in Stockholm. The questionnaire consisted of 25 questions concerning the asthma disease symptoms, medication, voice function, and voice disturbances.

Early detection of COPD in primary care: screening by invitation of smokers aged 40 to 55 years.

Background: The incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing in developed countries, as is the mortality rate. The main cause of COPD is smoking, and COPD is usually diagnosed at a late stage.

Aim: To evaluate a method to detect COPD at an early stage in smokers in a young age group (40-55 years).

Seasonal differences of peak expiratory flow rate variability and mediators of allergic inflammation in non-atopic adolescents.

Variations in peak expiratory flow (PEF) and serum eosinophil mediators were studied in healthy adolescents. Twenty-five boys and 31 girls, 11-16 years of age (mean age 14.3 years), were selected and investigated during the birch pollen season of 1995; 45 were also investigated during the autumn of the same year.