Lung Disease News and Research

RSS

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators improve survival in older heart patients

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) can improve survival in patients with heart damage - even those in their 70s - according to research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

6 Jan 2009

Researchers identify gene linked to inherited form of fatal lung disease

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that a mutation in a gene known for its role in defending the lungs against invading pathogens is responsible for some inherited cases of a lethal lung disease affecting older adults. The same mutation may also be associated with lung cancer, the researchers said.

21 Dec 2008

More can be done to prevent lung disease in Southeast-Asian babies

A simple, effective and low-cost method of preventing lung disease - and therefore death - in newborn children is not being practiced widely enough in South-East Asian hospitals, according to a major international study involving the University of Adelaide, Australia.

17 Dec 2008

Research aims to reduce scarring from heart attacks

A heart damaged by heart attack is usually broken, at least partially, for good.

14 Dec 2008

Potential new avenue for altering lung development in the embryo - will help premature babies

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have identified a potential new avenue for altering lung development in the embryo which may help to improve the outcome for very premature babies.

14 Dec 2008

Intervention in infants with cystic fibrosis key to slowing progression

Early detection of lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF), combined with aggressive treatment in infants, may be the key to controlling the progression of the disease, according to a recent study.

5 Dec 2008

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis linked to heart attacks

Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are three times as likely to experience severe coronary events - including heart attacks - than people without the disease, according to a recent study that analyzed the risk of cardiovascular disease in nearly 1,000 patients with IPF and more than 3,500 matched controls.

5 Dec 2008

No benefit from nifedipine widely used to prevent premature births

A trial where a popular drug was compared with a placebo found it worked no better at maintaining pregnancy after the initial bout of preterm labour is halted.

26 Nov 2008

Seniors are feeling anxious

For older adults who have lived through the Great Depression, news stories comparing present circumstances to the harsh realities of food lines, few jobs, and extreme poverty of the 1930's may be panic-producing.

25 Nov 2008

Call for greater caution in prescribing inhaled corticosteroids to COPD sufferers

Lung disease experts at Johns Hopkins are calling for physicians to show much greater caution in prescribing inhaled corticosteroid drugs for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after finding evidence that the widely used anti-inflammatory medications increase the risk of pneumonia by a full third.

25 Nov 2008

New hope for lung disease pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

A tale of two sisters has helped researchers solve a medical mystery and discover a familial genetic mutation that causes an inherited form of the lung disease Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP).

24 Nov 2008

Survival of head and neck cancer patients is greatly affected by coexisting ailments

Current estimates for head and neck cancer survival are largely inaccurate because they widely disregard many of the most common diseases such patients have in addition to their primary cancer, says Jay Piccirillo, M.D., a head and neck specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

19 Nov 2008

100,000 saved from dying of tuberculosis

Asma Elsony led the tuberculosis programme in Sudan at the same time as she took her doctoral degree under the supervision of Professor Gunnar Bjune of the Department of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo in Norway.

13 Nov 2008

Statins show promise for deep vein thrombosis

Statins, the class of drugs commonly used for lowering cholesterol, are now showing promise at preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots, an affliction that occurs in nearly 2 million Americans each year.

27 Oct 2008

Healing process found to backfire in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients

A mechanism in the body which typically helps a person heal from an injury, may actually be causing patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to get worse, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and their collaborators have found.

27 Oct 2008

Respiratory syncytial virus may hide in the lungs, lead to asthma

Conventional wisdom has been that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - a common virus that causes infection in the lungs - comes and goes in children without any long lasting impact.

27 Oct 2008

TB Alliance enters into collaboration with sanofi-aventis to fight tuberculosis

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and sanofi-aventis announced today that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to accelerate the discovery, development and clinical use of drugs against tuberculosis (TB). The TB Alliance is a not-for-profit, product development partnership, whose goal is the development of new TB drugs.

14 Oct 2008

Preventing lung disease in indigenous communities

A pilot health initiative partly developed at the University of Sydney could significantly reduce the debilitating impact of chronic lung disease within indigenous communities.

13 Oct 2008

New pig model of cystic fibrosis provides better understanding of human disease

For the first time, researchers have developed a genetically altered animal model for cystic fibrosis (CF) that closely matches the characteristics of the disease in humans. By studying the complex and multi-organ disease process in the pig model, researchers can now better understand how the complications of CF develop, an advancement that may lead to new avenues for research in prevention and treatment.

25 Sep 2008

Second phase of TB program that integrates HIV treatment begins in Harare, Zimbabwe

The second phase of the Integrated Health Care program to control tuberculosis has been implemented in Zimbabwe's capital of Harare, the Herald reports.

10 Sep 2008