For how we live.
In a 17-person phase 2a trial, once-weekly inhaled SPL84 lifted lung function in up to 70% of treated patients with the 3849+10 kb C→T mutation — a first reported clinical signal for an RNA-targeted inhaled therapy.
SLOWH, a 102-patient randomised trial, compared cutting flow first, oxygen first, or both at once when weaning critically ill adults off high-flow nasal cannula. Success rates of 94%, 81% and 77% did not differ.
A nationwide Brazilian cohort of 4.1 million children found that babies exposed to Zika in the womb but without congenital Zika syndrome had the same pneumonia-hospitalisation risk as unexposed children.
The PURE study measured airflow obstruction in adults across 25 countries and found most cases had never been labelled, with the largest undiagnosed share in lower-income settings.
An 840-child US trial gave the antibiotic to toddlers with moderate-to-severe wheezing in the emergency department. Symptom scores were no better than placebo, and the study was stopped for futility.
Colds come from viruses, not cold air. But chilling the body and breathing cold air can blunt the nose's antiviral defences enough to tip a lurking infection into symptoms.
The dripping-mucus feeling is one of the commonest causes of a lingering cough. What clears it depends on the cause — and for allergy, steroid sprays beat antihistamine pills for the drip itself.
Warm steam feels good on a blocked nose, but the randomised evidence for heated, humidified air treating a cold shows no clear benefit. A humidifier is comfort, not cure — and a dirty one carries its own risk.
Two large trials, ETHOS and IMPACT, found adding an inhaled steroid to a two-bronchodilator inhaler lowered exacerbation rates in COPD — at the cost of more pneumonia.
A 1,695-patient trial tested whether metoprolol helps people with COPD and no cardiovascular indication. It missed its primary endpoint — but, unlike an earlier trial, showed no signal of harm.
The federal program enrols nearly 140,000 responders and survivors, most certified for a 9/11-related illness. Cohort data show a heavy, still-growing burden — and hint the program itself lowers mortality.
The oral decongestant in most cold and sinus tablets — phenylephrine — works no better than placebo, US regulators now say. Saline and short-term sprays do more.
Twenty-five years of cohort data show the alkaline dust caused an acute cough syndrome and a real, largely permanent drop in lung function, graded by how much each person breathed.
The ORBEX trial gave OM-85 or placebo to 822 young children at high risk of asthma. Wheezing lower-respiratory illnesses were, if anything, slightly more common on the drug.
Two vaccines cut RSV lower-respiratory illness in older adults by roughly two-thirds to four-fifths in their pivotal trials. US guidance now recommends them for everyone 75 and older and for high-risk adults from 50.
In women 41 to 50, late perimenopause and postmenopause brought measurable declines in lung volume, with postmenopausal women losing up to 310 mL of FEV1. HIV status didn't change the pattern.
Health agencies conclude there is enough evidence to tie indoor dampness and mould to respiratory symptoms and asthma. Controlling the water source, not identifying the species, is what the evidence points to.
Cooking with gas emits nitrogen dioxide indoors, and pooled studies tie it to a higher risk of childhood asthma. One US analysis attributes about one in eight cases to gas stove use — an association, not a proven cause.
A new analysis of 198 cities finds 87% have a longer freeze-free growing season than in 1970 — up to 100 extra days in Reno — pushing pollen exposure further into the calendar.
A November systematic review screened 120 publications and found five eligible papers, all from the US and Canada. All pointed the same way; none could be pooled with the others.