Top asthma articles in April 2012

Here are my suggestions for some of the top asthma in April 2012 so far:

Methacholine challenge test has reduced sensitivity in white and nonatopic patients for diagnosis of asthma http://goo.gl/RZ7Ht

Dust mite and cockroach allergens directly active dendritic cells and promote allergic inflammation in the lung. Dendritic cells provide “periscope” surveillance of airway luminal surface and antigen uptake. Omalizumab may decrease allergic inflammation through its effect on dendrtic cells. http://goo.gl/gU1C1

Low health literacy is a risk factor for poorer health outcomes and use of health care services in asthma. 44% of US adults have basic or below basic literacy, implying that more than 80 million Americans might struggle or be unable to carry out everyday duties, such as signing a form, adding the amounts on a bank slip deposit, or comparing the ticket price of 2 events. http://goo.gl/Ef9x6

Sleep-Disordered Breathing is modifiable risk factor for severe asthma http://goo.gl/KlNqR

Obesity, Asthma, Sleep-Disordered Breathing are triangular protagonists: 2 or more = greater risk for worse outcome http://goo.gl/w5De5

Increased risk of pertussis in patients with asthma. The median age at the index date of pertussis was 14 years. 38% of the cases had asthma before the index date of pertussis compared with 26% of the controls (odds ratio, 1.73). Asthmatics are a target group for pertussis vaccination (eg, replacing decennial tetanus-diphtheria booster with tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis vaccine for adolescents and adults). http://goo.gl/DV0Ia

No association was observed between omalizumab treatment and risk of malignancy in pooled trials. Causal relationship between omalizumab therapy and malignancy is unlikely. http://goo.gl/Ag6zR

Experimental inhaled beta interferon drug SNG001 "stops common cold-related asthma deaths" - NHS blog reviews evidence http://goo.gl/EZL6L

Breastfeeding for more than 4 months improves lung function at ager 12 through a direct effect on lung growth http://goo.gl/TPuev

Elevated exhaled inflammatory markers (IL-2, IL-4, IL-8, IL-10, sICAM) at age 3 predict wheezing at age 5 http://goo.gl/UcYcX

Is vitamin D recommended in childhood asthma? AAAAI Ask the Expert is not sure either: http://goo.gl/n7MrL

HDAC1 and HDAC2 expression is not downregulated in severe asthma - contradicting previous studies http://goo.gl/CHMm7

The 79 authors of WAO WHITE BOOK ON ALLERGY cover all aspects of allergic disease. I’m honored to be 1 of them, the book is free to download http://goo.gl/I9KwE

The articles were selected from my Twitter and Google Reader streams.