Search results for " ASTHMA"

Management of severe asthma during the first lockdown phase of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: Tips for facing the second wave.

2022

SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has contributed to implement telemedicine, allowing clinicians to follow the patient remotely, therefore minimizing the risk of any exposure to positive COVID-19 patients. We summarize the approaches adopted to treat and monitor severe asthmatic patients during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. Our experience supports the strategy that every effort should be made to minimize patient contact with the health-care system, planning a pathway that allows patients to receive appropriate medical care and continue the biological therapies, thus preventing the loss of disease control and acute severe exacerbations.

Chronic obstructive lung disease “expert system”: Validation of a predictive tool for assisting diagnosis

2018

Purpose: The purposes of this study were development and validation of an expert system (ES) aimed at supporting the diagnosis of chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). Methods: A questionnaire and a WebFlex code were developed and validated in silico. An expert panel pilot validation on 60 cases and a clinical validation on 241 cases were performed. Results: The developed questionnaire and code validated in silico resulted in a suitable tool to support the medical diagnosis. The clinical validation of the ES was performed in an academic setting that included six different reference centers for respiratory diseases. The results of the ES expressed as a score associated with the risk of su…

Randomized Controlled Trials and real life studies. Approaches and methodologies: a clinical point of view.

2014

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the "gold standard" for evaluating treatment outcomes providing information on treatments "efficacy". They are designed to test a therapeutic hypothesis under optimal setting in the absence of confounding factors. For this reason they have high internal validity. The strict and controlled conditions in which they are conducted, leads to low generalizability because they are performed in conditions very different from real life usual care. Conversely, real life studies inform on the "effectiveness" of a treatment, that is, the measure of the extent to which an intervention does what is intended to do in routine circumstances. At variance to RCTs, real …

Prioritizing care for severe asthma during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

2021

Background Almost the entire World is experiencing the Coronavirus-Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, responsible, at the end of May 2020, of more than five million people infected worldwide and about 350,000 deaths. In this context, a deep reorganization of allergy clinics, in order to ensure proper diagnosis and care despite of social distancing measures expose, is needed. Main text The reorganization of allergy clinics should include programmed checks for severe and poorly controlled patients, application of digital medicine service for mild-to-moderate disease in well-controlled ones, postponement of non urgent diagnostic work-ups and domiciliation of therapies, whenever possible. As far…

Lung penetration and patient adherence considerations in the management of asthma: role of extra fine formulations

2013

The mainstay of management in asthma is inhalation therapy at the target site, with direct delivery of the aerosolized drug into the airways to treat inflammation and relieve obstruction. Abundant evidence is available to support the concept that inflammatory and functional changes at the level of the most peripheral airways strongly contribute to the complexity and heterogeneous manifestations of asthma. It is now largely accepted that there is a wide range of clinical phenotypes of the disease, characterized primarily by small airways involvement. Thus, an appropriate diagnostic algorithm cannot exclude biological and functional assessment of the peripheral airways. Similarly, achievement…

Disease-Modifikation und Dauer einer Omalizumab-Therapie bei Patienten mit schwerem allergischen Asthma

2014

Hintergrund und Methodik: Omalizumab ist ein monoklonaler Anti-IgE-Antikorper zur Behandlung des schweren allergischen Asthma bronchiale. Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Bewertung der vorhandenen Evidenz durch ein Expertengremium und die Formulierung daraus resultierender Empfehlungen zu moglichen krankheitsmodifizierenden Effekten und der Dauer der Behandlung mit Omalizumab. Ergebnisse: Eine direkte oder indirekte Interaktion zwischen Omalizumab und der IgE-Produktion ist wahrscheinlich. Die aufgrund eines pharmakokinetisch-pharmakodynamischen Modells erwarteten IgE-modulierenden Eigenschaften von Omalizumab werden derzeit in der klinischen Anwendung uberpruft. Therapieentscheidungen auf Grundl…

A potential link between serum low-density lipoproteins and asthma

2015

Against all odds: anti-IgE for intrinsic asthma?

2013

For many years, pathogenetic concepts and the results of clinical trials supported the view that anti-IgE treatment is specifically effective in allergic asthma. However, there is now growing clinical and mechanistic evidence suggesting that treatment with the anti-IgE antibody omalizumab can be effective in patients with intrinsic asthma. Therefore, large and well-controlled clinical trials with anti-IgE are urgently warranted in patients with intrinsic asthma. In addition, there is a need to find new biomarkers which can identify patients with asthma who respond to anti-IgE treatment.

Does early onset asthma increase childhood obesity risk? A pooled analysis of 16 European cohorts

2018

The parallel epidemics of childhood asthma and obesity over the past few decades have spurred research into obesity as a risk factor for asthma. However, little is known regarding the role of asthma in obesity incidence. We examined whether early-onset asthma and related phenotypes are associated with the risk of developing obesity in childhood.This study includes 21 130 children born from 1990 to 2008 in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. We followed non-obese children at 3-4 years of age for incident obesity up to 8 years of age. Physician-diagnosed asthma, wheezing and allergic rhinitis were assessed up to 3-4 years of age.Children with ph…

The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Three: A global synthesis

2013

This ISAAC Phase Three synthesis provides summarised information on the main findings of the study, regional tables and figures related to the prevalence and severity of current symptoms of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema in the main regions of the world. The large number of surveyed children (≈1,200,000), the large number of centres (233) and countries (98) that participated in ISAAC Phase Three makes this study the most comprehensive survey of these diseases ever undertaken. Globally, the prevalence for current asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema in the 13-14-year age group was 14.1%, 14.6% and 7.3%, respectively. In the 6-7-year age group the prevalence for current asthma, rhin…