The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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Beta-blockers may induce several types of adverse respiratory reaction such as asthma, interstitial lung disease with or without pleural effusion, systemic lupus erythematosus or hypersensitivity pneumonitis. More recently, bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP) has been described. ⋯ The patient improved only partially with steroids. Tapering off corticosteroid dosage resulted in relapse, and complete recovery was only obtained after sotalol was stopped.
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There is much evidence that eosinophils play an important role in bronchial epithelial damage in asthma by releasing cationic proteins. However, the extent to which eosinophil inflammation relates to indices of asthma severity in chronic stable asthma is still a matter of debate. We studied 46 clinically stable patients with mild to severe chronic asthma (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 50-126% of predicted value). ⋯ The relationships between sputum or serum ECP and PC20 (range 0.016-7.5 mg x mL[-1]), and between sputum ECP and FEV1 were found to be weak. In conclusion, sputum outcomes of eosinophil activation and serum eosinophilic cationic protein appear to be useful indicators of disease. They do not accurately reflect current clinical or functional indices of asthma severity in chronic stable patients, and might therefore provide complementary data disease monitoring.
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Bronchiectatic patients have impaired health-related quality of life (QoL) and are prone to chronic lower respiratory tract infections. We have investigated whether impaired QoL is related to sputum bacteriology. Eighty seven patients with non-cystic fibrosis (non-CF) bronchiectasis, in a stable phase of their illness, completed three QoL measures, underwent a computed tomography (CT) scan and lung function tests, and provided a fresh sputum sample for microscopy and culture. ⋯ Patients infected by P. aeruginosa for more than 3 yrs had significantly worse FEV1 (p<0.03) and bronchiectasis scores (p<0.05) than those infected with P. aeruginosa for less time, but not significantly worse QoL. We conclude that, overall, patients infected with P. aeruginosa have worse quality of life, and that P. aeruginosa is associated with a greater extent of disease and worse lung function. Although patients infected with H. influenzae had extensive bronchiectasis their quality of life was better than the P. aeruginosa infected group.