Resp Res
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Asthma is characterized by a heterogeneous inflammatory profile and can be subdivided into T(h)2-high and T(h)2-low airway inflammation. Profiling of a broader panel of airway cytokines in large unselected patient cohorts is lacking. ⋯ We identified 5 unique asthma molecular phenotypes by biological clustering. Type 2 cytokines cluster with non-type 2 cytokines in 4 out of 5 clusters. Unsupervised analysis thus not supports a priori type 2 versus non-type 2 molecular phenotypes. www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT01224938. Registered 18 October 2010.
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Comparative Study Controlled Clinical Trial
The role of serum procalcitonin in establishing the diagnosis and prognosis of pleural infection.
Bacterial pleural infection requires prompt identification to enable appropriate investigation and treatment. In contrast to commonly used biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and white cell count (WCC), which can be raised due to non-infective inflammatory processes, procalcitonin (PCT) has been proposed as a specific biomarker of bacterial infection. The utility of PCT in this role is yet to be validated in a large prospective trial. This study aimed to identify whether serum PCT is superior to CRP and WCC in establishing the diagnosis of bacterial pleural infection. ⋯ The study presents evidence that serum procalcitonin is not superior to CRP and WCC for the diagnosis of bacterial pleural infection. The study suggests routine procalcitonin testing in all patients with unilateral pleural effusion is not beneficial however further investigation may identify specific patient subsets that may benefit.