Annals of medicine
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Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are chronic inflammatory disorders of the respiratory tract that are characterized by airflow limitation. They are distinct conditions with different causes, structural changes, and immunopathology. The pathophysiology in asthma and COPD involves not only the proximal large airways, but also the distal small airways, and thus the small airways are an important therapeutic target in the treatment of both diseases. ⋯ Improving the efficiency of existing aerosolized therapy to direct drug to the appropriate lung regions may improve clinical efficacy. Approaches to target distal lung regions include developing new drug formulations with smaller aerosol particle size or using inhaler devices that emit aerosolized drug at slow inhalation flows. Large studies are needed to determine whether better distal lung deposition leads to improvements in small airways function that are translated into clinically significant patient outcomes.
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Comparative Study
Hemoglobin A1c and glucose criteria identify different subjects as having type 2 diabetes in middle-aged and older populations: the KORA S4/F4 Study.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has recently recommended HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes as an alternative to glucose-based criteria. We compared the new HbA1c-based criteria for diagnosis of diabetes and prediabetes with the glucose-based criteria. ⋯ By glucose and the new HbA1c diabetes criteria, different subjects are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in middle-aged as well as older subjects. The new HbA1c criterion lacks sensitivity for impaired glucose tolerance.