Spirometry Reference Values for Navajo Children Ages 6-14 Years

Summary. Spirometry is the most important tool in diagnosing pulmonary disease and is the most frequently performed pulmonary function test. Since respiratory disease is the single greatest cause for morbidity and mortality on the Navajo Nation, the purpose of this study was to create new age and race-specific pulmonary nomograms for Navajo children. Five hundred fifty-eight healthy children, ages 6-14 years, attending Navajo Nation elementary schools in Arizona, were asked to perform spirometry to develop population-specific and tribe-specific nomograms for forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), and FEV1 Ratio (FEV1/FVC). Spirometry tests from 284 girls and 274 boys met American Thoracic Society quality control standards. Lung function values, except for FEV1/FVC, all increased with height. The lower limit of the normal range for FEV1/FVC was 80%. The spirometry reference equations from the healthy boys and girls were developed. Height and the natural log of height were significant predictors of FEV1, FVC, and FEF 25-75% in the gender-specific models. The resulting population-specific spirometry reference equations should be used when testing Navajo children ages 6-14 years. However, the use of the NHANES III spirometry reference equations for Caucasian children may not result in significant misclassification in clinical settings providing that a maximal effort is given by the Navajo child being tested

Construction of a large scale integrated map of macrophage pathogen recognition and effector systems

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In an effort to better understand the molecular networks that underpin macrophage activation we have been assembling a map of relevant pathways. Manual curation of the published literature was carried out in order to define the components of these pathways and the interactions between them. This information has been assembled into a large integrated directional network and represented graphically using the modified Edinburgh Pathway Notation (mEPN) scheme.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The diagram includes detailed views of the toll-like receptor (TLR) pathways, other pathogen recognition systems, NF-kappa-B, apoptosis, interferon signalling, MAP-kinase cascades, MHC antigen presentation and proteasome assembly, as well as selected views of the transcriptional networks they regulate. The integrated pathway includes a total of 496 unique proteins, the complexes formed between them and the processes in which they are involved. This produces a network of 2,170 nodes connected by 2,553 edges.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The pathway diagram is a navigable visual aid for displaying a consensus view of the pathway information available for these systems. It is also a valuable resource for computational modelling and aid in the interpretation of functional genomics data. We envisage that this work will be of value to those interested in macrophage biology and also contribute to the ongoing Systems Biology community effort to develop a standard notation scheme for the graphical representation of biological pathways.</p

Diversity of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strains Isolated from Inpatients of 30 Hospitals in Orange County, California

There is a need for a regional assessment of the frequency and diversity of MRSA to determine major circulating clones and the extent to which community and healthcare MRSA reservoirs have mixed. We conducted a prospective cohort study of inpatients in Orange County, California, systematically collecting clinical MRSA isolates from 30 hospitals, to assess MRSA diversity and distribution. All isolates were characterized by spa typing, with selective PFGE and MLST to relate spa types with major MRSA clones. We collected 2,246 MRSA isolates from hospital inpatients. This translated to 91/10,000 inpatients with MRSA and an Orange County population estimate of MRSA inpatient clinical cultures of 86/100,000 people. spa type genetic diversity was heterogeneous between hospitals, and relatively high overall (72%). USA300 (t008/ST8), USA100 (t002/ST5) and a previously reported USA100 variant (t242/ST5) were the dominant clones across all Orange County hospitals, representing 83% of isolates. Fifteen hospitals isolated more t008 (USA300) isolates than t002/242 (USA100) isolates, and 12 hospitals isolated more t242 isolates than t002 isolates. The majority of isolates were imported into hospitals. Community-based infection control strategies may still be helpful in stemming the influx of traditionally community-associated strains, particularly USA300, into the healthcare setting. © 2013 Hudson et al

Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identify multiple loci associated with pulmonary function

Spirometric measures of lung function are heritable traits that reflect respiratory health and predict morbidity and mortality. We meta-analyzed genome-wide association studies for two clinically important lung-function measures: forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC), an indicator of airflow obstruction. This meta-analysis included 20,890 participants of European ancestry from four CHARGE Consortium studies: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study and Rotterdam Study. We identified eight loci associated with FEV 1 /FVC (HHIP, GPR126, ADAM19, AGER-PPT2, FAM13A, PTCH1, PID1 and HTR4) and one locus associated with FEV1(INTS12-GSTCD-NPNT) at or near genome-wide significance (P 5 × 10-8) in the CHARGE Consortium dataset. Our findings may offer insights into pulmonary function and pathogenesis of chronic lung disease