Lung Disease News and Research

RSS

New tool can help determine senior citizens' 10-year survivability rates

A UC San Francisco team has developed a tool that can help determine - and perhaps influence - senior citizens' 10-year survivability rates.

6 Mar 2013

Five scientists aim to make strides in predicting and preventing preterm birth

Five researchers from four states are investigating how genetics and infections interact to cause preterm birth as well as how proteins and hormones regulate a healthy pregnancy, all with the goal of giving more babies a healthy start in life, the March of Dimes announced today.

5 Mar 2013

Steroids may reduce length of hospital stay in patients with pneumonia

Patients with pneumonia may spend fewer days in the hospital if they are given steroids along with antibiotics and supportive care. That's the finding of a Mayo Clinic analysis of eight randomized-controlled clinical trials involving more than 1,100 patients.

1 Mar 2013

Gas transfer predicts survival in lung disease patients

Gas transfer is the best lung function predictor of survival in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, study results suggest.

25 Feb 2013

UAB becomes first in America to test experimental therapy for emphysema

A patient at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) became the first person in America to undergo an investigational therapy for emphysema that uses a foam sealant sprayed into the lungs.

23 Feb 2013

HIF-1α protein can work directly to stop new cells from forming

A protein known for turning on genes to help cells survive low-oxygen conditions also slows down the copying of new DNA strands, thus shutting down the growth of new cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their discovery has wide-ranging implications, they say, given the importance of this copying - known as DNA replication - and new cell growth to many of the body's functions and in such diseases as cancer.

23 Feb 2013

Air pollution exposure raises cardiac death rate

Long-term exposure to high levels of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 mm or below increases a person’s chance for dying following a heart attack, show results from a large UK study.

20 Feb 2013

Physicians do not talk to patients about psychosocial impact and long-term risks of ICDs

New research at Saint Louis University shows physicians do not talk to patients about the psychosocial impact and long-term risks of implanting cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) to treat irregular heart rhythms, leaving them misinformed about how the device may affect quality of life.

20 Feb 2013

FDA approves Novartis’ Zortress to prevent organ rejection after liver transplantation in adults

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zortress (everolimus) for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a liver transplant.

16 Feb 2013

Improving tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis: an interview with Professor Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD

TB is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nearly 9 million people develop TB every year, and TB kills nearly 1.4 million individuals each year. While the incidence of TB has steadily declined in the west, it remains a huge public health problem in many developing countries, with India having the highest burden.

15 Feb 2013

Prediabetes associated with impaired lung function

Japanese researchers have found a significant association between prediabetes and impaired lung function.

14 Feb 2013

Bronchiectasis finding reveals COPD patients at mortality risk

Bronchiectasis is independently associated with mortality risk among patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Spanish research shows.

12 Feb 2013

Bronchiectasis independently associated with increased mortality risk in COPD patients

Bronchiectasis is independently associated with an increased mortality risk in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, according to a new study from researchers in Spain.

10 Feb 2013

Washington Post examines relationship between counterfeit drugs, rise of drug-resistant TB

The Washington Post examines the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB) around the world, writing, "One culprit in the rise of untreatable TB is counterfeit drugs, which can undermine treatment efforts by packing insufficient active ingredients to fully kill off bacteria, breeding new, stronger super-strains of the disease."

7 Feb 2013

CDC, State Department, World Bank should lead fight against fake, substandard TB drugs

"Thanks to billions of dollars spent on diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) over the past decade, deaths and infections are slowly declining," but "fake and poorly made antibiotics are being widely used to treat tuberculosis," according to a study "to be published Tuesday in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease," Roger Bate, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an author of the study, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

6 Feb 2013

Three NIH-sponsored influenza trials begin to enroll volunteers

Three clinical trials that seek to find more effective treatments for influenza are enrolling volunteers with influenza at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., and at several dozen other domestic and international sites.

6 Feb 2013

COPD underdiagnosed in Chinese lung cancer patients

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated among lung cancer patients in China, study results show.

4 Feb 2013

Double transplants can be successful with donor lungs from heavy smokers

Lungs from carefully selected donors with a heavy smoking history can be used with good results in adult, double-lung transplants, according to a study released today at the 49th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

29 Jan 2013

Left ventricular hypertrophy prevalent in lung disease patients

The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy is increased in normoxemic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, results from a pilot study suggest.

25 Jan 2013

SLU team discovers molecular pathway that contributes to triple-negative breast cancer

In research published in the Jan. 17 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology, a team led by Susana Gonzalo, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University, has discovered a molecular pathway that contributes to triple-negative breast cancer, an often deadly and treatment resistant form of cancer that tends to strike younger women.

23 Jan 2013