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Predictive Properties of the Asthma Control Test and Its Component Questions for Severe Asthma Exacerbations.

Predictive Properties of the Asthma Control Test and Its Component Questions for Severe Asthma Exacerbations.

J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2016 Aug 17;

Authors: Cajigal S, Wells KE, Peterson EL, Ahmedani BK, Yang JJ, Kumar R, Burchard EG, Williams LK

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Current US guidelines recommend the Asthma Control Test (ACT) for assessing disease control and selecting treatment.
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to prospectively assess the ACT and its component questions for their utility in predicting the risk of severe asthma exacerbations.
METHODS: Individuals were participants in the Study of Asthma Phenotypes and Pharmacogenomic Interactions by Race-Ethnicity, and those included in the current analysis had the following characteristics: age 18 years or more, physician-diagnosed asthma, and longitudinal care received at a large health system in southeastern Michigan. Study participants underwent a baseline evaluation, which included answering the ACT. A severe asthma exacerbation was defined as one requiring oral steroids, an emergency department visit, or inpatient admission. Receiver-operator characteristic curves were used to measure and compare the predictive utility of the ACT and its component questions for severe asthma exacerbations.
RESULTS: Of 1180 participants, 354 (30.0%) experienced a severe asthma exacerbation within 6 months of their baseline evaluation. When compared with the individual questions that composed the ACT, the composite score was significantly better at predicting severe exacerbations with 1 exception; the composite ACT score and the question assessing rescue medication use were not significantly different (P = .580). Pharmacy-based records of metered-dose inhaler short-acting beta-agonist use and asthma severity were also not significantly different from the composite ACT score.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that although the ACT is modestly predictive for exacerbations, the composite score may not be superior to assessing rescue medication use alone for predicting the risk of severe asthma exacerbations.

PMID: 27544712 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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The genus Peucedanum traditional Uses, phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties: A Review.

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The genus Peucedanum traditional Uses, phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties: A Review.

J Ethnopharmacol. 2014 Sep 2;

Authors: Sarkhail P

Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The genus Peucedanum (Apiaceae) comprising more than 120 species are widely distributed in Europe, Asia and Africa. The ethnopharmacologial history of this genus indicated that some extracts of aerial and underground parts of several Peucedanum species have used in folk medicine for treatment of various conditions, such as cough, cramps, pain, rheumatism, asthma and angina.
AIM OF THE REVIEW: This review focuses on ethnopharmacological uses of Peucedanum species, as well as the phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological studies on this genus. Through this review, we intend to highlight the known and potential effects of the Peucedanum species or their isolated compounds and show which of traditional medicine uses have supported by pharmacological investigations.
METHODS: Information on the Peucedanum species collected from scientific journals, books, thesis and reports via a library and electronic search (using Google Scholar, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect). This review covers the available literature from 1970 to the end of September 2013.
RESULTS: Although, there are about 120 species in this genus, so far many species that have received no or little attention and the most of pharmacological studies were performed just about 20 species. Many phytochemical investigations on this genus confirmed Peucedanum species are rich in essential oils and coumarins. The present review article shows Peucedanum species have a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities that the most reported activities of Peucedanum plants come back to the presence of coumarins, flavonoids, phenolics and essential oils CONCLUSIONS: The present review confirmed some Peucedanum species have emerged as a good source of the traditional medicine for treatment of inflammation, microbial infections, cardiopulmonary diseases and provides new insights for further investigations on isolated compounds specially on praeruptorins to find novel therapeutics and drug discovery. However, for uses of Peucedanum species to prevent and treat various diseases the additional pharmacological studies to find the mechanism of action, safety and efficacy of them before starting clinical trials are required.

PMID: 25193684 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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