MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Prof. Francine Ducharme[/caption]
Francine M. Ducharme, MD, FRCPC
Professor, Departments of Paediatrics and Social and Preventive Medicine
University of Montreal
Associate Director of Clinical Research and Knowledge Transfer, Research Centre, CHU Ste-Justine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The management of asthma attacks in preschoolers has been the subject of much recent debate. The results of a study published in 2009 had shaken the pediatric world. The study reported that preschool children with viral-triggered flare-ups did not respond to standard treatment and, suggesting that this was due to their young age. Such finding was particularly worrisome as the majority of asthma-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations involve preschool children.
We conducted this large cohort study in which children aged 1 to 17 years with a moderate or severe asthma attack were treated using the established evidence-based therapy adjusted to the severity of exacerbation assessed by the Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure (PRAM), administered rapidly. We explored the determinants of the failure of emergency therapy. Age was not a factor. Instead, in addition to attack severity and symptoms between attacks, it was rather the presence of respiratory viral infection or fever triggering the attack that was more often associated with treatment failure, i.e., higher hospitalization rates, more returns to the emergency room, and reduced speed of recovery over the 10 days after discharge. Viral detection occurred more frequently in preschoolers (67%) than in older children (46%) with asthma.
Nevertheless, the results confirm the overall effectiveness of standard treatment, adjusted to the severity of the attack and administered early, in the vast majority of children, regardless of age and viral detection. Indeed, although a failure rate of nearly 40% was expected in this group of children with moderate to severe attack, only 17% of the participants did not respond to standard treatment. This rate was significantly higher (19%) in children with viral infection compared to uninfected children (13%).
Dr. Filippo Milano[/caption]
Dr. Filippo Milano, MD, PhD
Assistant Member, Clinical Research Division
Associate Director Cord Blood Transplantation
Cord Blood Program
Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: When first introduced, cord blood (CB) graft was used only as a last resort when no suitable conventional donor could be identified, largely due to the limiting cell doses available in a cord blood graft. A CB graft, however, is attractive due to the increased level of HLA disparity that can be tolerated, without increased risk of graft versus host disease, allowing nearly all patients to find such a donor.
The main intent of the study was to evaluate whether or not, at our Institution, cord blood SHOULD STILL BE considered only AS an alternative DONOR or IF instead outcomes were comparable to those obtained with more “conventional” types of transplants from matched and mismatched unrelated donors.
