Credit: Original article published here.In a recent study, researchers evaluated treatment adherence in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) based on age and either once-daily or twice-daily dosing of medication. They generally sought to determine if prescribing once-daily dosing improved the suboptimal treatment adherence seen in this population. The study’s lead author, Heather De Keyser, MD, MSCS, reported that patients with asthma and COPD with once-daily medications had significantly improve daily treatment adherence compared with patients prescribed twice-daily medications. Researchers also found patients with COPD showed higher adherence than patients with asthma, which they noted may be due to an older cohort age. Findings from the study were presented in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. Treatment Adherence Improved With Once-Daily Medication The study assessed data from electronic medication monitors on date and time of inhaler actuations over 90 days among patients from the Propeller Health platform. Researchers compared adherence between once- and twice-daily schedules using retrospective regression models adjusted for age. According to the report, patients with once-daily schedules had a median daily adherence of 63.3% (interquartile range [IQR], 31.1-86.7) for asthma and 83.3% (IQR, 57.2-95.6) COPD, which was significantly higher than patients with

Credit: Original article published here.In a recent report, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers evaluated 3 recurrent wheezing phenotypes for links to development of childhood asthma among infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis. According to the study’s lead author, Jonathan Mansbach, most infants with severe bronchiolitis developed recurrent wheezing, as defined by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) 2020 criteria. Furthermore, based on NHLBI phenotypes, 33-54% of patients developed asthma by 6 years of age. Recurrent Wheezing Associated With Childhood Asthma The investigators assessed 921 infants with bronchiolitis from 17 medical centers using NHLBI 2020 definitions for recurrent wheezing and 2 additional phenotypes, multitrigger and severe. A sensitivity analysis using the NHLBI 2007 criteria was also performed. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify the phenotype with the highest risk. According to the study, 632 (69%), 734 (80%), and 165 (18%) of 921 infants developed recurrent wheezing, multitrigger wheezing, and severe wheezing per NHLBI 2020 criteria by 4 years of age. The authors noted 296 (32%) infants met the NHLBI 2007 criteria for recurrent wheezing by age 3. A total of 862 (94%) infants had evaluable childhood data, of which 239 (28%) developed asthma by

Credit: Original article published here.A recent analysis, published in Frontiers in Pediatrics, evaluated the effects of physical activity (PA) in pediatric patients with asthma. The study’s authors noted their goal was to synthesize the sizable amount of new evidence generated by the refinement of PA and asthma studies over the prior 10 years. According to the investigators, the results of their systematic review and meta-analysis suggested that PA could improve forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of FVC (FEF25-75), and quality of life in asthmatic children; however, there was not evidence of an improvement in forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) or airway inflammation. The authors of the meta-analysis included a total of 9 randomized controlled trials published to the PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from 2010 to 2020. Studies were eligible if they enrolled patients under 18 years of age who met asthma diagnostic criteria guidelines and included different forms of PA in the intervention group for at least 4 weeks. Among the participants of the 9 trials, PA significantly improved FVC (mean difference [MD], 7.62; 95% CI, 3.46-11.78; P<.001) and FEF25-75 (MD, 10.39; 95% CI, 2.96-17.82; P=.006) lung function measures, the

Credit: Original article published here.Researchers, led by Sina Sadrifar, evaluated whether probiotic supplementation impacted symptoms and immune profile characteristics in patients with asthma. The authors cited the preventative effects of probiotics against a wide range of diseases as support that they could also provide a benefit in asthmatics. Based on their findings, the authors suggested probiotic supplementation reduced T-helper cell type 2 (Th2)-related interleukin (IL)-4 levels and improved pulmonary function test performance when compared with placebo after 8 weeks of treatment among asthmatics. The data were published in Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology. Asthma Treatment With Probiotics Improves Outcomes This was a double-blinded, controlled trial that randomized 40 patients with asthma to 1 capsule of probiotics or placebo per day for 8 weeks. The primary end points of the study were changes in pulmonary function tests, IL-4 and interferon (IFN)-γ plasma levels, and various microRNAs (miR) expression levels from baseline after treatment. According to the report, probiotic treatment in patients with asthma significantly reduced their expression of miR-16 and miR146-a and levels of IL-4, while also concurrently increasing their expression of miR-133b. In addition, patients with asthma had significant improvements in forced expiratory volume over 1 second and forced vital