Airwaves
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Acute severe asthma may require admission to intensive care units (ICUs), although information on epidemiology and outcome is generally only available from relatively small studies. In this month’s Thorax, Stow and colleagues report on the outcome of people with acute severe asthma admitted to ICUs, using a comprehensive database of ICUs in Australia. The incidence of ICU admissions fell significantly from 1.9% in 1996 to 1.1% in 2003 and over a third received mechanical ventilation in the first 24 h. A decline in mortality was found over this time, even though the severity of the asthma event had increased.
See p 842
|
Exaggerated bronchial constriction is a key feature of asthma and may be life threatening. Increased airway smooth muscle is also a characteristic of asthma, although there is little information on mechanisms of airway smooth muscle contractility due to difficulty in study of these factors. In this issue,
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Articles
- Traffic related exposures and lung function in adults
- Fernando Holguin
Thorax 2007 62: 837-838.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Where there’s smoke there’s lung disease
- Youcheng Liu
Thorax 2007 62: 838-839.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Biomass fuels are the probable risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in rural South China
- Shengming Liu, Yumin Zhou, Xiaoping Wang, Dali Wang, Jiachun Lu, Jingping Zheng, Nanshan Zhong, and Pixin Ran
Thorax 2007 62: 889-897.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Comparison of gel contraction mediated by airway smooth muscle cells from patients with and without asthma
- Hisako Matsumoto, Lyn M Moir, Brian G G Oliver, Janette K Burgess, Michael Roth, Judith L Black, and Brent E McParland
Thorax 2007 62: 848-854.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Traffic exposure and lung function in adults: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study
- Haidong Kan, Gerardo Heiss, Kathryn M Rose, Eric Whitsel, Fred Lurmann, and Stephanie J London
Thorax 2007 62: 873-879.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Improved outcomes from acute severe asthma in Australian intensive care units (1996–2003)
- Peter J Stow, David Pilcher, John Wilson, Carol George, Michael Bailey, Tracey Higlett, Rinaldo Bellomo, Graeme K Hart and the Australian & New Zealand Intensive Care Society Adult Patient Database Management Committee
Thorax 2007 62: 842-847.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
