American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Nov 2012
Longitudinal analysis casts doubt on the presence of genetic anticipation in heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Analysis of the age of onset in heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension (HPAH) has led to the hypothesis that genetic anticipation causes younger age of onset and death in subsequent generations. With accrual of pedigree data over multiple decades, we retested this hypothesis using analyses that eliminate the truncation of data that exists with shorter duration of follow-up. ⋯ Genetic anticipation is likely an artifact of incomplete time of observation of kindreds with HPAH due to BMPR2 mutations.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Nov 2012
Human rhinovirus species and season of infection determine illness severity.
Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) consist of approximately 160 types that cause a wide range of clinical outcomes, including asymptomatic infections, common colds, and severe lower respiratory illnesses. ⋯ Factors related to HRV species and type, season, and host susceptibility determine the risk of more severe HRV illness in infancy. These findings suggest that anti-HRV strategies should focus on HRV-A and -C species and identify the need for additional studies to determine mechanisms for seasonal increases of HRV severity, independent of viral prevalence, in cold weather months.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Nov 2012
A novel sarcoidosis risk locus for Europeans on chromosome 11q13.1.
Sarcoidosis is a complex inflammatory disease with a heterogeneous clinical picture. Among others, an acute and chronic clinical course can be distinguished, for which specific genetic risk factors are known. ⋯ This study provides striking evidence for association of chromosome 11q13.1 with sarcoidosis in Europeans, and thus identified a further genetic risk locus shared by sarcoidosis, Crohn disease and psoriasis.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Nov 2012
Respiratory infection and the impact of pulmonary immunity on lung health and disease.
Acute lower respiratory tract infection is responsible for an inordinate disease burden. Pulmonary immunity determines the outcomes of these infections. The innate and adaptive immune responses to microbes in the lung are critical to maintaining a healthy respiratory system and preventing pulmonary disease. ⋯ First, tremendous morbidity and mortality result from inadequate, misguided, or excessive pulmonary immunity. Second, our understanding of pulmonary immunity is at an exciting stage of rapid developments and discoveries, but many questions remain. Further advances in pulmonary immunity and elucidation of the cellular and molecular responses to microbes in the lung are needed to develop novel approaches to predicting, preventing, and curing respiratory disease.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Nov 2012
Comparative StudyMacrolide treatment for Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium massiliense infection and inducible resistance.
Macrolides, such as clarithromycin (CLR) and azithromycin (AZM), are frequently the only oral antibiotics that are active against Mycobacterium abscessus and M. massiliense infections. ⋯ CLR induces greater erm(41) expression and thus higher macrolide resistance than AZM in M. abscessus infection. AZM may be more effective against M. abscessus, whereas both macrolides appear to be equally effective against M. massiliense.