Efficacy of Intravenous Reslizumab in Oral Corticosteroid-Dependent Asthma.

Background: Reslizumab displays efficacy in patients with inadequately controlled eosinophilic asthma; previous reports in oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma are limited.

Objective: To assess efficacy of reslizumab in oral corticosteroid-dependent patients and benefits on oral corticosteroid burden.

Methods: We report post hoc analyses of pooled data from duplicate, placebo-controlled phase 3 trials.

Effects of Reslizumab on Asthma Outcomes in a Subgroup of Eosinophilic Asthma Patients with Self-Reported Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps.

Background: An estimated 7% of patients with asthma have chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), and more than 80% have at least some radiographic evidence of sinonasal inflammation. Aspirin sensitivity is strongly associated with elevated blood eosinophil levels and increased asthma severity. Intravenous (IV) reslizumab has been shown to improve asthma control in patients with nasal polyps.

Dysfunctional breathing is more frequent in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than in asthma and in health.

Involuntary adaptations of breathing patterns to counter breathlessness may lead to dysfunctional breathing in obstructive lung diseases. However, no studies examining dysfunctional breathing in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have been reported. Patients with verified COPD (n=34), asthma (n=37) and a healthy control group (n=41) were recruited.

Associations between outdoor fungal spores and childhood and adolescent asthma hospitalizations.

Background: Childhood asthma is a significant public health problem and severe exacerbations can result in diminished quality of life and hospitalization.

Objective: We sought to examine the contribution of outdoor fungi to childhood and adolescent asthma hospitalizations.

Methods: The Melbourne Air Pollen Children and Adolescent study is a case-crossover study of 644 children and adolescents (aged 2-17 years) hospitalized for asthma.

Reslizumab for inadequately controlled asthma with elevated blood eosinophil counts: results from two multicentre, parallel, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials.

Background: Elevated numbers of blood eosinophils are a risk factor for asthma exacerbations. Reslizumab is a humanised anti-interleukin 5 monoclonal antibody that disrupts eosinophil maturation and promotes programmed cell death. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of reslizumab in patients with inadequately controlled, moderate-to-severe asthma.

First-in-human experience with the Medtronic Bifurcation Stent System.

Aims: The BRANCH study was a prospective, multicentre, non-randomised, single arm trial to investigate the feasibility, safety, efficacy, and performance of the bare metal Medtronic Bifurcation Stent System for the treatment of de novo bifurcation lesions.

Methods And Results: Sixty patients were enrolled in the study. After a learning curve of one case at seven centres, 53 patients from six centres were prospectively treated.

Extended follow-up safety and effectiveness of the Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent in real-world clinical practice: two-year follow-up from the E-Five Registry.

Objectives: To present data from the cohort of patients in the all-comers Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES) registry (E-Five) who underwent 2-year follow-up.

Background: The Endeavor ZES has been shown to be safe and efficacious for treatment of single, de novo lesions in patients with stable coronary artery disease. E-Five evaluated the ZES in over 8,000 real-world patients, at 188 sites followed to 1 year.

Clinical and angiographic results with the next-generation resolute stent system: a prospective, multicenter, first-in-human trial.

Objectives: The RESOLUTE trial examined the safety and efficacy of a next-generation zotarolimus-eluting coronary stent, Resolute (Medtronic CardioVascular Inc., Santa Rosa, California).

Background: Revascularization benefits associated with current drug-eluting stents are often diminished in the presence of complex coronary lesions and in certain patient cohorts.

Rhinovirus detection: comparison of real-time and conventional PCR.

Rhinoviruses are important human respiratory viruses and the major causative agents of the common cold. Historically, detection of rhinovirus has been by virus culture and this was significantly improved by the use of PCR assays. Recently real-time PCR was developed but to date there have been no reported comparisons of conventional and real-time PCR assays for detection of rhinovirus.