Health topics: All About Pediatric Asthma
18.05.12
Asthma affects 4.8 million American children under the age of 17. The rate of asthma among children is on the rise, increasing 72 percent between 1982 and 1994. The onset of asthma can begin at any age. 80 to 90 percent of asthmatics have their first attack before they are four or five years old. Eighty percent of these children are also allergic. Ten to 15 percent of boys and seven to 10 percent of girls have asthma during their childhood. By adolescence, the prevalence of asthma in girls begins to escalate. Boys and girls then remain equal until adulthood.
African Americans and children whose parents have asthma are more likely to develop the illness. In addition to the genetic and ethnic influences on asthma, there is also an increased incidence of asthma in areas of high pollutants and viruses, poor living conditions, overcrowded housing, poor access to medical care and cockroach exposure.
The incidence of and mortality (deaths related to asthma) from childhood asthma have been increasing over the last two decades. Proposed reasons for the increase in asthma-related deaths include adverse environmental factors, family dysfunction and an underestimation of the severity of an exacerbation (worsening of the condition) leading to a delay in appropriate treatment. Although asthma effects children at young ages, the outlook is favorable in many cases. Half of all asthmatics are symptom free within in 10 to 20 years, with some recurrences as adults.
Source: Newsolio
Bear Cub grants awarded
18.05.12
Morrissey and colleagues are developing rapid tests for the early detection of kidney cancer and to monitor patients for the recurrence of the disease and metastases. They had identified a pair of proteins excreted in the urine that have the potential to detect about 90 percent of all kidney cancers.
The research team will now validate the tests using monoclonal antibody-based assays in urine samples of patients who are known to have kidney cancer, and compare their results to those in patients with non-cancerous kidney diseases and in healthy patients.
Radiotracer perfusion scans of the heart are often recommended for patients experiencing chest pain or a heart attack, so doctors can measure blood flow in the heart. But the medical isotope most commonly used today is in short supply.
Piwnica-Worms and his team have discovered a novel imaging agent that binds a new medical isotope, Gallium-68. He is evaluating whether the agent can noninvasively measure blood flow in the heart using high resolution PET scans.
Source: Washington University in St. Louis News
Asthma is caused by environmental and genetic factors, which can ascendancy how severe asthma is and how well it responds to medication. The upper airway recognises these perceived dangers and protects the more W lungs by shutting down the
