Respiratory medicine
-
Respiratory medicine · Dec 1999
Feasibility of spirometry and reversibility testing for the identification of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on asthma registers in general practice.
There is renewed interest in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) within primary care. Primary care physicians have difficulty distinguishing asthma from COPD. We tested the feasibility of using spirometry and if appropriate, reversibility testing, to identify patients with COPD on asthma registers in primary care. ⋯ Patients aged 50 years and over on asthma registers had a wide spectrum of lung function with considerable diagnostic misclassification. Some patients with normal lung function when tested may have had well controlled asthma. New diagnoses of COPD were mainly in those with mild or moderate disease.
-
Respiratory medicine · Dec 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialSalmeterol/fluticasone propionate (50/500 microg) in combination in a Diskus inhaler (Seretide) is effective and safe in the treatment of steroid-dependent asthma.
This multicentre double-blind, double-dummy study compared the safety and efficacy of a new combination Diskus inhaler containing both salmeterol 50 microg and fluticasone propionate 500 microg (Seretide, GlaxoWellcome, France) with the same doses of the two drugs delivered via separate Diskus inhalers and with the same dose of fluticasone propionate alone. Patients were eligible for study entry if they had received an inhaled corticosteroid continuously for 12 weeks prior to run-in, and had received treatment with beclomethasone dipropionate or budesonide 1500-2000 microg day(-1) or fluticasone propionate 750-1000 microg day(-1) for at least 4 weeks prior to run-in. In total, 503 patients receiving inhaled corticosteroids were randomized to 28 weeks' treatment with either salmeterol/fluticasone propionate (50/500 microg) via a single Diskus inhaler (combination) and placebo, or salmeterol 50 microg and fluticasone propionate 500 microg administered via separate Diskus inhalers (concurrent), or fluticasone propionate 500 microg and placebo. ⋯ All three treatments were well tolerated. In addition, there were no differences between the three treatments in either the c.hange in serum cortisol or urinary cortisol concentrations, which, for each treatment group, were no significantly different from baseline at the end of the treatment period. Thus, the combination of salmeterol and fluticasone propionate in a single inhaler is as well tolerated and effective in achieving asthma control in steroid-dependent patients as the separate administration of the two drugs, and both combination and concurrent therapy are superior to administration of the same dose of corticosteroid alone.
-
Respiratory medicine · Oct 1999
Chronic respiratory symptoms, von Willebrand factor and longitudinal decline in FEV1.
Although some risk factors for accelerated decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) such as cigarette smoking, are well defined, it is not possible to identify those individuals with the most rapid rates of decline. Von Willebrand factor (vWF) is a product of both the pulmonary and systemic endothelium, and serum levels are raised during episodes of acute bronchitis. We hypothesized that raised serum levels of vWF may indicate sub-clinical pulmonary injury and so may predict subsequent accelerated decline in FEV1. ⋯ Much of this disease is unrecognised by health professionals. An FEV1 < 75% predicted is a strong independent predictor of subsequent mortality. The measurement of serum vWF levels is unhelpful in identifying those individuals at increased risk of accelerated decline in FEV1.
-
Respiratory medicine · Sep 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialVolume calibration alone may be misleading.
The use of spirometry is becoming more and more widespread in non-laboratory situations such as general practice or occupational medicine. In these non-laboratory situations, volume calibration with a 3000 ml syringe is often the only feasible method to ensure that the spirometer produces valid and reproducible data. Sophisticated equipment to calibrate forced manoeuvres with standard waveforms are not present. ⋯ Volume calibration may be misleading. The results from volume calibration may meet the ATS criteria, but this is no guarantee that data from forced manoeuvres are accurate. If CDS equipment to simulate standard wave forms is not available, it is recommended that biological calibration is performed regularly and, if possible, that paired data from two (or more) different spirometers are compared.
-
Respiratory medicine · Aug 1999
A comparison of the expression of lymphocyte activation markers in blood, bronchial biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage: evidence for an enrichment of activated T lymphocytes in the bronchoalveolar space.
In this study healthy never-smoking subjects (n = 18) were recruited from a population study. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), blood lymphocytes and bronchial biopsies, analysed both in the epithelium and lamina propria, were stained for T and B lymphocytes, natural killer (NK) cells and different subpopulations of T lymphocytes. In BAL, significantly higher proportions of T lymphocytes (CD3), T lymphocyte activation markers; HLA-DR, CD26+, CD49a+, CD54+ and CD69+, helper T (CD3+4+) and memory helper T lymphocytes (CD4+45RO+29+) and memory T lymphocytes (CD3+45RO+) were found, compared to blood. ⋯ In bronchial biopsies, we found significantly higher numbers of CD8+ cell profiles per mm2 in the epithelial compared to the lamina propria compartment. We conclude that healthy never-smoking men have higher levels of activated memory T lymphocytes in BAL than in blood, and that the T-cell subpopulations differ in the epithelial compared to the lamina propria compartment in the bronchial mucosa and these compartments should be analysed separately. It is reasonable to think that there is a gradient from blood to the airway lumen where T cells are recruited from blood to take part in the defense towards damaging agents.