American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jun 2013
A prospective study of the impact of air pollution on respiratory symptoms and infections in infants.
There is increasing evidence that short-term exposure to air pollution has a detrimental effect on respiratory health, but data from healthy populations, particularly infants, are scarce. ⋯ Exposure to even moderate levels of air pollution was associated with increased respiratory symptoms in healthy infants. Particularly in infants with premorbid lung function and inflammation, air pollution contributed to longer duration of infectious episodes with a potentially large socioeconomic impact.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jun 2013
Proinflammatory S100A12 can activate human monocytes via Toll-like receptor 4.
S100A12 is overexpressed during inflammation and is a marker of inflammatory disease. Furthermore, it has been ascribed to the group of damage-associated molecular pattern molecules that promote inflammation. However, the exact role of human S100A12 during early steps of immune activation and sepsis is only partially described thus far. ⋯ Human S100A12 is an endogenous TLR4 ligand that induces monocyte activation, thereby acting as an amplifier of innate immunity during early inflammation and the development of sepsis.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jun 2013
Impact of delay in clinical presentation on the diagnostic management and prognosis of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.
The nonspecific clinical presentation of pulmonary embolism (PE) frequently leads to delay in its diagnosis. ⋯ PE can be safely excluded based on a clinical decision rule and D-dimer testing in patients with a delayed clinical presentation. A delayed presentation for patients who survived acute PE was associated with a more central PE location, although this did not affect the clinical outcome at 3 months.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jun 2013
Cytokine complex-expanded natural killer cells improve allogeneic lung transplant function via depletion of donor dendritic cells.
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that target virus-infected and tumor cells. Much less is known about their ability to limit adaptive immune responses. ⋯ These results suggest that NK cells favor allograft acceptance by depleting donor-derived DCs, which otherwise would prime alloreactive T-cell responses. Thus, conditioning regimens that augment NK-cell reactivity should be clinically explored to prepare lung allograft recipients.