Active clinical trials for "Lung Diseases"

To analyze previously collected data on respiratory illness in early childhood.

To investigate the determinants of valid symptom perception in childhood asthma and the relation of symptom perception to asthma morbidity.

To extend follow-up of a birth cohort of asthmatic children through adolescence and on to adulthood. .

To conduct a multicenter case-control study of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) in relation to maternal exposure to smoking and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Also, to assess other potential antenatal risk factors and collect and store buccal cell specimens for future analyses.

To measure lung function and respiratory symptom status in a large cohort of healthy, non-smoking 18-22 year old subjects, and relate these measurements to past histories of passive smoke and air pollution exposures.

To modify and expand an existing pharmacokinetic model for nasal dose as well as to develop a new model to estimate tracheobronchial dose of an active agent for each subject in a study of acute respiratory health effects.

To determine whether objectively recorded sleep durations were mortality risk factors, whether sleep duration could be distinguished from depression as a risk factor in Women's Health Initiative (WHI) data, and whether sleep-associated risks were attributable to specific pathophysiologic processes such as sleep apnea, circadian rhythm phase advances, or deficiencies of melatonin, or deficiencies of reproductive steroids. The study was ancillary to the WHI.

To test a conceptual model of how disability develops in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease. We propose to study inflammatory changes in the lungs of subjects with atopic asthma of different severity in vivo using positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG). It has been shown that the uptake of FDG as detected by PET scanning correlates with inflammation in animal models as well as in human disease processes such as sarcoidosis, tuberculosis and abscess formation. In addition, it has been shown that the inflammation associated with allergen challenge in patients with atopic asthma can be visualized using PET scanning with FDG. We hypothesize that the degree of FDG-uptake as a measure of inflammation correlates with the severity of asthma as determined by pulmonary function tests and clinical signs and symptoms. In addition, information about the spatial distribution of the inflammatory changes will be obtained. To compare the characteristics of the inflammation in asthma with non-asthmatic inflammation of the lung, the images obtained in asthmatic subjects will be compared with images from subjects who have inflammatory changes of the lung caused by Wegener's granulomatosis. Subjects with atopic asthma and non-atopic control subjects will be selected from the community and, if eligible for the study, undergo skin testing against common allergens and pulmonary function testing. Subjects with Wegener's granulomatosis will be selected from a large group of subjects followed with this disease at NIAID. PET scanning with FDG will be used to measure inflammation in the PET scanning facility at the Clinical Center of the NIH and the results of the scanning will be correlated with the severity of the disease. We expect that for the first time this methodology will permit an objective measure of the basic pathogenic process, the allergic inflammation, in patients with atopic asthma. Using this methodology it will be possible to study the efficacy of currently available therapies for allergic inflammation. In addition, this methodology will provide an extremely useful tool for the development of new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of asthma.

Scientific research focuses on "eosinophilic inflammation" as it seems to guide the therapeutic regimen in patients with asthma and COPD. The primary objective of this prospective trial is to evaluate which parameter(s) best reflects eosinophilic inflammation by correlating tissue eosinophils (endobronchial biopsy, protected specimen brush sampling) with FeNO, peripheral blood eosinophils, and eosinophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage of patients with obstructive pulmonary disease.