Nadia hansel

Introduction: Antiplatelet therapy has been associated with fewer exacerbations and reduced respiratory symptoms in COPD. Whether platelet activation is associated with respiratory symptoms in COPD is unknown. Methods: Former smokers with spirometry-confirmed COPD had urine 11-dehydro-thromboxane B2 (11dTxB2), plasma soluble CD40L (sCD40L) and soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) repeatedly measured during a 6-9-month study period. Multivariate mixed-effects models adjusted for demographics, clinical characteristics, and medication use evaluated the association of each biomarker with respiratory symptoms, health status, and quality of life...

RATIONALE: Indoor air pollution represents a modifiable risk factor for respiratory morbidity in COPD. The effects of indoor air pollution, as well as the impact of interventions to improve indoor air quality, on cardiovascular morbidity in COPD remain unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between indoor particulate matter(PM) and heart rate variability(HRV), a measure of cardiac autonomic function tied to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, as well as the impact of household air purifiers on HRV...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Many persons with a history of smoking tobacco have clinically significant respiratory symptoms despite an absence of airflow obstruction as assessed by spirometry. They are often treated with medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but supporting evidence for this treatment is lacking. METHODS: We randomly assigned persons who had a tobacco-smoking history of at least 10 pack-years, respiratory symptoms as defined by a COPD Assessment Test score of at least 10 (scores range from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating worse symptoms), and preserved lung function on spirometry (ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1 ] to forced vital capacity [FVC] ≥0...

Rationale : Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) mortality risk is often estimated using the BODE index (including body mass index, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), dyspnea score, and six-minute walk distance). Diffusing capacity (DLCO) is a potential predictor of mortality that reflects physiology distinct from that in the BODE index. Objectives : This study evaluated DLCO as a predictor of mortality using participants from the COPDGene study. Methods : We performed time-to-event analyses of individuals with COPD (former/current smokers with FEV1/FVC <0...

Rational: Poor indoor air quality has been associated with worse COPD morbidity. In-home portable air cleaners reduce indoor pollutants and could improve respiratory health. Factors associated with air cleaner adherence among adults with COPD remains unknown. Methods: In a 6-month trial of former smokers with COPD, participants (n=116) received active or sham portable air cleaners. Air cleaner adherence was measured by electronic monitors. Potential baseline predictors of adherence included individual factors (demographics, socioeconomic status, smoking history, psychological well-being), COPD disease severity and housing characteristics...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Sleep is an important dimension in the care of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but its relevance to exacerbations is unclear. We wanted to assess whether sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is associated with an increased risk of COPD exacerbations and does this differ by socio-environmental exposures. METHODS: We included 1647 current and former smokers with spirometrically confirmed COPD from the SPIROMICS cohort...

Obese asthma is a unique phenotype of asthma characterized by non-allergic airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and inflammation which responds poorly to standard asthma therapy. Metformin is an oral hypoglycemic drug with insulin-sensitizing and anti-inflammatory properties. The objective of the current study was to test the effect of metformin on AHR in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity (DIO). We fed 12-week-old C57BL/6J DIO mice with a high fat diet for 8 weeks and treated them with either placebo (control, n = 10) or metformin ( n = 10) added in drinking water (300 mg/kg/day) during the last 2 weeks of the experiment...

Rationale: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is defined by fixed spirometric ratio, FEV1 /FVC < 0.70 after inhaled bronchodilators. However, the implications of variable obstruction (VO), in which the prebronchodilator FEV1 /FVC ratio is less than 0.70 but increases to 0.70 or more after inhaled bronchodilators, have not been determined. Objectives: We explored differences in physiology, exacerbations, and health status in participants with VO compared with reference participants without obstruction...

Rationale: It has been suggested that patients with COPD experience considerable daily respiratory symptom fluctuation. A standardized measure is needed to quantify and understand the implications of day-to-day symptom variability. Objectives: To compare standard deviation with other statistical measures of symptom variability and identify characteristics of subjects with higher symptom variability. Methods: Individuals in the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS) Exacerbations sub-study completed an Evaluating Respiratory Symptoms in COPD (E-RS) daily questionnaire...

Organophosphate esters (OPE) are flame retardants and plasticizers used in a wide range of consumer products. Despite their widespread use, few studies have characterized pediatric exposures. We assessed variability and predictors of OPE exposures in a cohort panel study of 179 predominantly Black school-aged children in Baltimore City, MD. The study design included up to four seasonal week-long in-home study visits with urine sample collection on days 4 and 7 of each visit (nsamples  = 618). We quantified concentrations of 9 urinary OPE biomarkers: bis(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (BCEtp), bis(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate, bis(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (BDCPP), di-benzyl phosphate (DBuP), di-benzyl phosphate, di-o-cresylphosphate, di-p-cresylphosphate (DPCP), di-(2-propylheptyl) phthalate (DPHP), 2,3,4,5-tetrabromo benzoic acid...

BACKGROUND: Neighborhood poverty has been associated with poor health outcomes. Previous studies have also identified adverse respiratory effects of long-term ambient ozone. Factors associated with neighborhood poverty may accentuate the adverse impact of ozone on respiratory health. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether neighborhood poverty modifies the association between ambient ozone exposure and respiratory morbidity including symptoms, exacerbation risk, and radiologic parameters, among participants of the SPIROMICS AIR cohort study...

BACKGROUND: Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1 ) is central to the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but is imprecise in classifying disease burden. We examined the potential of the maximal mid-expiratory flow rate (forced expiratory flow rate between 25% and 75% [FEF25%-75% ]) as an additional tool for characterizing pathophysiology in COPD. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether FEF25%-75% helps predict clinical and radiographic abnormalities in COPD...

RATIONALE: Tobacco outlets are concentrated in low-income neighbourhoods; higher tobacco outlet density is associated with increased smoking prevalence. Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure has significant detrimental effects on childhood asthma. We hypothesised there was an association between higher tobacco outlet density, indoor air pollution and worse childhood asthma. METHODS: Baseline data from a home intervention study of 139 children (8-17 years) with asthma in Baltimore City included residential air nicotine monitoring, paired with serum cotinine and asthma control assessment...

RATIONALE: African Americans have worse outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). OBJECTIVE: Assess whether race-specific approaches for estimating lung function contribute to racial inequities by failing to recognize pathological decrements and considering them normal. METHODS: In a cohort with and at-risk-for COPD, we assessed whether lung function prediction equations applied in a race-specific versus universal manner better modeled the relationship between forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and other COPD outcomes, including COPD Assessment Test (CAT), St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), CT percent emphysema, airway wall thickness (Pi10) and six-minute walk test (6MWT)...

Rationale Environmental exposures have been associated with adverse outcomes in COPD. Approximately one third of individuals with COPD have allergic sensitization, but it is unknown whether exposure to allergens in the home are associated with outcomes. Objectives To determine the prevalence and associations of allergen sensitization with exposure to common indoor allergens with symptoms and exacerbation risk in COPD. Methods Allergen sensitization to five common indoor allergens was assessed in former smokers with COPD...

Introduction: There is evidence that obesity, a risk factor for asthma severity and morbidity, has a unique asthma phenotype which is less atopic and less responsive to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are important to the immunologic pathways of obese asthma and steroid resistance. However, the cellular source associated with steroid resistance has remained elusive. We compared the lymphocyte landscape among obese children with asthma to matched normal weight children with asthma and assessed relationship to asthma control...

BACKGROUND: Total serum IgE (tIgE) is an important intermediate phenotype of allergic disease. Whole genome genetic association studies across ancestries may identify important determinants of IgE. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to increase understanding of genetic variants affecting tIgE production across the ancestry and allergic disease spectrum by leveraging data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program; the Consortium on Asthma among African-ancestry Populations in the Americas (CAAPA); and the Atopic Dermatitis Research Network (N = 21,901)...