August 2010

Change in Section Leadership
Section Chair Melynn Wakeman was forced to resign her position this summer due to health concerns, and AARC President Tim Myers has appointed Mike Tracy to serve in her place until a new chair can be selected in the Fall AARC Elections. Mike is a neonatal-pediatric pulmonary function specialist at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH. Please join us in welcoming Mike to the position. READ MORE

eNews Archives
Remember seeing a study or report in a recent section eNews, but can’t find the old email? No problem—all of the eNews newsletters are ARCHIVED on our section website, so you can easily look back through previous editions to find the information you’re looking for.

More on AARConnect
Expand the use of your Diagnostics Section membership by getting involved on AARConnect. Look for documents shared by other Section members in the LIBRARY. Participate in DISCUSSIONS with other Section members.

Drive4COPD
Get the scoop on the AARC's involvement in the Drive4COPD program and learn how you can help. READ DRIVE4COPD

Ancestry Matters
A new study in the July 7 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggests mixed ancestry should be taken into account when adjusting pulmonary function test results. The authors examined data on more than 3,000 patients who had identified themselves as African American in three large cohorts, comparing the fit of a model based on the covariates used in standard prediction equations with a model incorporating ancestry. Overall, the ancestry-based model resulted in the reclassification of asthma severity, based on the percentage of the predicted FEV1, in 4–5% of the participants. “Current predictive equations, which rely on self-identified race alone, may misestimate lung function among subjects who identify themselves as African American,” write the investigators. “Incorporating ancestry into normative equations may improve lung-function estimates and more accurately categorize disease severity.” READ ABSTRACT

Bronchial Responsiveness Varies in Children Around the World
An international group of investigators who looked at international variations in bronchial responsiveness (BR) and their associations with asthma symptoms and atopic sensitization in children find:

• Prevalence of wheeze last year ranged from 4.4% in Tirana, Albania, to 21.9% in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand; prevalence of bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR) went from 2.1% in Tirana to 48% in Mumbai, India.
• The geometric mean BR slope varied between 3.4%/log(min) in Tirana and 12.8%/log(min) in Mumbai and Rome, Italy.
• At the individual level, BHR was positively associated with wheeze during the past 12 months in both affluent and non-affluent countries; this association was more pronounced in atopic children.
• There was a correlation between center-specific mean BR slope and wheeze prevalence in atopic, but not in non-atopic children.

The study appeared in the July 1 Epub edition of Pediatric Pulmonology. READ ABSTRACT

FeNO Can Predict Asthma in Kids
A new study out of the University of Southern California has found FeNO can predict the development of asthma in children. The research involved 2206 healthy, asthma-free children who were measured for FeNO levels in 2004, then followed until 2007. Children with the highest quartile of FeNO had more than twice the risk of new-onset asthma than those with the lowest quartile. A history of respiratory allergic symptoms did not affect the findings. The effect of elevated FeNO on new-onset asthma was most apparent among those without a parental history of asthma. “We believe this is the first study to demonstrate the predictive value of FeNO for identifying children who are at risk for developing asthma,” study author Tracy Bastain, MPH, was quoted as saying. The study was published in the July 15 Epub edition of the European Respiratory Journal. READ ABSTRACT READ PRESS RELEASE

Defining “Complete Asthma Remission”
Researchers who set out to see whether a “complete asthma remission”—defined as an absence of symptoms, no use of medication, absence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), and the presence of a normal lung function—is also associated with the absence of airway inflammation find the answer is yes. They re-examined patients with a former asthma diagnosis and a positive histamine provocation test. Those with PC20 histamine less than or equal to 32 mg/ml were defined as current asthmatics and divided into two groups: asthmatics with and without BHR to adenosine 5’monophoshate (AMP). Seven patients met the criteria for complete asthma remission, and these patients showed no AMP-induced sputum eosinophilia at baseline or after AMP. By comparison, patients who maintained an asthma diagnosis, with or without BHR, had a significant increase in sputum eosinophils both at baseline and after AMP. The study appeared in the Aug. 2 Epub edition of Respiratory Research. READ ABSTRACT