Acute Asthma

National rates of cigarette smoking showed little change in 2008 from a year earlier, the CDC reported, though states vary widely both in rates of current smoking and exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.

In the first six months of the H1N1 flu pandemic, 22 million Americans fell ill from the virus, the CDC now estimates.

Since the end of August (MedPage Today) -- the official start of the 2009-2010 flu season -- influenza activity has increased rapidly across the U.S., nearly all of it attributable to the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Patient concerns over new HFA-propelled inhalers seem to have tapered off, but questions remain about physicians knowledge of proper use of the new devices and their procedures for teaching patients how to use them.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Parents of asthmatic children dont typically comply with recommendations to get rid of their pets, even though the kids may be allergic, researchers said here.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Regardless of the asthma patients age, treatment with a combination of budesonide and formoterol produced a greater improvement in lung function than budesonide pressurized metered-dose inhalers alone, researchers reported here.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Treating asthmatic children as young as 6 months with the leukotriene receptor antagonist montelukast (Singulair) appears effective, according to pooled analyses of two similar randomized clinical trials.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Researchers reported here that pediatric patients with asthma treated with fluticasone propionate plus salmeterol in a fixed-dose combination experienced fewer serious asthma exacerbations and lower costs when compared with the use of inhaled corticosteroids plus montelukast.

A Mexican study confirmed that younger people were more likely to become infected with the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus but that older people were more likely to die once they got it.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- In obese patients, asthma appears to have important differences from the condition in normal and overweight people, a researcher said.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Asthma patients 65 and older are more likely to have uncontrolled disease than younger adults, a researcher said here.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- A combination asthma treatment under development appears to cause few adverse side effects when compared with monotherapy with corticosteroids or long-acting beta2-agonists, researchers said here.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- A method of using radio frequency-induced heat to ease asthma symptoms when drugs dont work could be commercially available by spring, researchers said.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Children younger than 7 can successfully use devices that measure exhaled nitric oxide and monitor how well some treatments are controlling their asthma, a researcher reported here.

The FDA has reached out in an attempt to ease safety fears over the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, this time to healthcare professionals.

Survival of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) did not improve when they were kept face down for mechanical ventilation, researchers said.

MIAMI BEACH (MedPage Today) -- Researchers suggested here that many people who are diagnosed with exercise-induced shortness of breath and asthma frequently may be misdiagnosed.