News by Subject Medicine & Health

The lungs and placentas of fetuses in the womb -- as young as 11 weeks after conception -- already show a bacterial microbiome signature, which suggests that bacteria may colonize the lungs well before birth. This first-time finding deepens the mystery of how the microbes or microbial products reach those organs before birth and what role they play in normal lung and immune system development.

A specialized Lung Rescue Team established to evaluate and treat patients with obesity receiving mechanical ventilation due to acute respiratory failure has significantly reduced the risk of mortality

Twice as many people as previously believed are dying of sepsis worldwide, according to an analysis published today in The Lancet and announced at the Critical Care Reviews annual meeting in Belfast. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas. Led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Washington schools of medicine, the study revealed 48.9 million global cases of sepsis in 2017 and 11 million deaths, representing 1 in 5 deaths worldwide.

Bronchiolitis, a lung infection that is one of the most common reasons for hospitalizations in young children, is most prevalent during the winter months and is usually treated with albuterol delivered via inhalers, despite evidence showing no benefit in most patients. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) redesigned the hospital's standard treatment for the infection and reduced albuterol use without compromising care.

The strength of the immune system in response to respiratory infections is constantly changing, depending on the history of previous, unrelated infections, according to new research from the Crick.

A new Cleveland Clinic study has uncovered a genetic anomaly associated with poor response to a common asthma treatment. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that asthmatic patients with the gene variant are less likely to respond to glucocorticoids and often develop severe asthma.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the effect of weight loss on the upper airway in obese patients, researchers found that reducing tongue fat is a primary factor in lessening the severity of OSA.

BPA's counterpart replacement BPS can hinder heart function within minutes of a single exposure, according to a new University of Guelph study.

A University of Iowa study challenges the conventional wisdom that having just one mutated copy of the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene has no effects on a person's health. The findings show that CF 'carriers' are at increased risk for most of the conditions that affect people with CF. Although the individual-level risk is low, more than 10 million Americans are CF carriers, suggesting the amount of illness caused by CF-related conditions could be substantial.

E-cigarette use is rising, particularly among young adults and teens. Recent illnesses and deaths attributed to vaping have caused intense scrutiny of the chemicals in e-liquids and vapor, but little is known about the size of vaping particles and their deposition patterns in human airways. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology have analyzed how e-cigarette particle size and deposition change with factors such as device power, e-liquid composition and vaping practices.