May 2002

From National Jewish Medical and Research Center

National Jewish faculty present research on asthma, COPD and infectious lung diseases

American Thoracic Society Meeting, May 17-22 in Atlanta, Georgia

National Jewish Medical and Research Center faculty will present their latest research on asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and infectious lung diseases during the American Thoracic Society's annual conference May 17-22 in Atlanta. The conference is the largest gathering of lung-related specialists in the world, attracting more than 14,000 attendees. Several noteworthy posters and presentations are described below.

African Americans Less Responsive to Steroids for Asthma
8:15 a.m. Tuesday

African Americans bear a disproportionate share of America's asthma epidemic. They develop asthma more frequently and die more often than Caucasians. Monica Jones, M.D., will present data suggesting one reason why. African Americans are significantly more resistant to the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids, the mainstay of asthma treatment. Although both African Americans and Caucasians grow more resistant to steroids as they age, African Americans do so much more rapidly. The findings suggest that African Americans may need more aggressive treatment for their disease and that alternatives to steroids should be considered. Poster #407 -- Are African Americans Less Responsive to Glucocorticoids?

Tougher Than Multidrug-Resistant TB
8:15 a.m. Tuesday

Patients from around the nation come to National Jewish to be treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. But those aren't the most difficult cases Gwen Huitt, M.D., sees; rapidly growing mycobacterial infections are. Not only are these infections difficult to diagnose, they can be almost impossible to treat medically. Doctors at National Jewish are seeing more cases, many of them picked up from contaminated hot tubs or during cosmetic surgery. Dr. Huitt will discuss rapidly growing mycobacterial infections during a clinical symposium.

Clinical Symposium #C8 -- Diagnosis and Management of Lung Disease Due to Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections.

Adrenal Gland Fails to Heed Message in Severe Asthma
10:10 a.m. Wednesday

Asthma symptoms commonly worsen during the night and can be a signal of poorly controlled and/or severe asthma. In a study of nocturnal asthma patients, Rand Sutherland, M.D., and his colleagues found that the adrenal gland apparently fails to heed a message telling it to secrete more of the hormone cortisol. The findings suggest the adrenal gland's failure to respond appropriately may be a factor in determining asthma severity, and point to a potential target for intervention. Poster Session #D12 --Hypothalmic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Dysfunction During Sleep in Nocturnal Asthma

Current Issues in Clinical Research
1:30 p.m. Monday

Clinical trials have become a hot topic with high-profile patient deaths, academic research programs shut down, and a reorganization of the government body overseeing the trials. Barry Make, M.D., will co-chair a clinical symposium on current issues in clinical research, featuring several national experts on the topic. The symposium will cover patient consent, study design and regulatory oversight. Symposium #B78 -- Current Issues in Clinical Research

Distinguished Achievement: Lynn M. Taussig, M.D.
4:30 p.m. Sunday

National Jewish President and CEO Lynn M. Taussig, M.D., will be honored with the ATS Distinguished Achievement Award for his lifelong efforts to prevent and fight respiratory disease through research, education, patient care and advocacy.

Asthma and Secondhand Smoke
2 p.m. Tuesday

Previous reports linking secondhand smoke to worsening asthma have relied on inexact measures of smoke exposure. Nathan Rabinovitch, M.D., used electronic particulate monitors at home and school, electronic medication monitors, daily lung-function tests and symptom diaries to demonstrate a clear dose-response relationship between exposure to secondhand smoke and worsening pulmonary function and asthma symptoms in 18 asthmatic children. In households with smokers, children demonstrated a clear worsening of their asthma on days when particulate levels were higher in the home. The findings suggest that any reduction in a child's exposure to secondhand smoke could be helpful. Poster #427 -- Acute Exposure to Airborne Particulate Increases Asthma Severity in Children Exposed to Environmental Tobacco Smoke.

Who Will Benefit from Anti-IgE?
1:30 p.m. Sunday

The anti-IgE monoclonal antibody has been touted as one of the most exciting new asthma and allergy medications coming down the pipeline. But its high cost and availability only by injection are likely to limit its use. Sally Wenzel, M.D., will present an analysis of previous clinical trials to determine which asthma patients are likely to get the most benefit from anti-IgE treatments.

Poster #101 -- Patients With More Severe Allergic Asthma Gain Greatest Relative Benefit from Omalizumab Therapy

Hygiene Hypothesis Supported in Mouse Model
8:15 a.m. Tuesday

An early bacterial infection may protect against the subsequent development of asthma, according to research reported by Hong Wei Chu, M.D. and his colleagues in the lab of Richard Martin, M.D. They first infected the young mice with the bacteria mycoplasma pneumoniae, then exposed them a month later to ovalbumin, to which they were allergic. The infected mice showed better lung function than did control mice. Levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines interferon gamma and interleukin-4 also indicated that the infected mice were more resistant to developing an allergic response to the ovalbumin. The findings provide some of the first experimental support for the hygiene hypothesis, which postulates that early exposure to environmental contaminants such as bacteria protect against the development of asthma and allergies. Poster #111 -- Hygiene Hypothesis of Asthma: A Murine Asthma Model with Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infection.

Slowing the Progression of COPD
1:30 p.m. Sunday

No treatment has been shown to slow the decline in lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Some have hypothesized that corticosteroids could slow the disease process by treating inflammation, but past clinical trials have been inconclusive. Rand Sutherland, M.D., hypothesized that previous trials have been too small to detect the salutary effect of steroids on lung function. In a meta-analysis of five published trials, Dr. Sutherland found that inhaled steroids slowed the annual decline in lung function by 15% to 22%. Poster # 303 -- Inhaled Corticosteroids Improve the Accelerated Decline of FEV1 in Patients with COPD -- A Meta-Analysis of 5 Trials.

Do Asthma and COPD Have a Common Origin?
1:30 p.m. Sunday

Most people believe that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is caused by tobacco smoke. But less than a quarter of all smokers develop the disease, suggesting that people with COPD had an intrinsic susceptibility before they began smoking. Since COPD and asthma share so many clinical and pathological characteristics, some believe that COPD and asthma patients share this susceptibility, but develop different diseases because of different triggering events. Monica Kraft, M.D., will lead a symposium exploring this hypothesis. Clinical Translational Symposium #A79 -- The Dutch Hypothesis Revisited: Do Asthma and COPD have a Common Origin?

Maybe It's Not Asthma
8:15 a.m. and noon Monday

Asthma patients who cannot bring their asthma under control even with aggressive treatment may not have asthma at all. They may have vocal cord dysfunction, an involuntary closure of the vocal cords that interferes with breathing. Patients diagnosed with VCD can perform simple exercises to gain control of their breathing. Susan Brugman, M.D., will speak on the diagnosis and treatment of this under-recognized disease during a "Meet the Professor Seminar," and discuss a case study of a VCD patient misdiagnosed as having steroid-dependent asthma. Clinical Topics in Pulmonary Medicine #B2 -- Pediatric Clinical Chest Rounds Meet the Professor Seminar #MP504 -- Vocal Cord Dysfunction



This article comes from Science Blog. Copyright � 2004
http://www.scienceblog.com/community

Archives 2002 D