Asthma patients that depend on emergency department (ED) services are generally considered to have extremely poor disease control and prognosis. It is important to identify characteristics related to poor disease control and frequent visits to the ED to apply appropriate clinical management. This study comprised a cross-sectional survey of consecutive patients with asthma exacerbation (age > or = 12 years) presenting at the adult ED of a large, tertiary care, university-affiliated hospital over a 2-month period. The frequent visitors (FV) were defined by > or = 3 visits to the ED in the preceding year, and the occasional visitors (OV) by < or = 2 visits. Eighty-six patients (61 females and 25 males) were included in the study (mean age 38 +/- 18 years). Of these patients, 51.2% were FV and 48.8% were OV. Sixty-nine percent had annual income lower than A dollar 3000 and 66.3% had < or = 8 years of the formal education. Only 18.6% had used inhaled corticosteroids, 79.1% identified the asthma attack severity, 70.9% increased or initiated inhaled beta-agonist, 20.9% increased or initiated steroid therapy, and 55.8% had an asthma action plan for attack. The number of hospital admissions in past year (OR 4.3, P = .02), use of home nebulizer (OR 3.6, P = .05) and the lack of a written asthma action plan (OR 3.3, P = .03) were independently associated with frequent visits to the ED. We conclude that a substantial proportion of the patients that visit the ED are FV. These patients are more likely to have hospital admission in the past year, to use a home nebulizer, and to lack a written asthma action plan. They should be considered the most important target for asthma education.
Early identification of patients who need hospitalization or patients who should be discharged would be helpful for the management of acute asthma in the emergency room. The objective of the present study was to examine the clinical and pulmonary functional measures used during the first hour of assessment of acute asthma in the emergency room in order to predict the outcome. We evaluated 88 patients. The inclusion criteria were age between 12 and 55 years, forced expiratory volume in the first second below 50% of predicted value, and no history of chronic disease or pregnancy. After baseline evaluation, all patients were treated with 2.5 mg albuterol delivered by nebulization every 20 min in the first hour and 60 mg of intravenous methylprednisolone. Patients were reevaluated after 60 min of treatment. Sixty-five patients (73.9%) were successfully treated and discharged from the emergency room (good responders), and 23 (26.1%) were hospitalized or were treated and discharged with relapse within 10 days (poor responders). A predictive index was developed: peak expiratory flow rates after 1 h £0% of predicted values and accessory muscle use after 1 h. The index ranged from 0 to 2. An index of 1 or higher presented a sensitivity of 74.0, a specificity of 69.0, a positive predictive value of 46.0, and a negative predictive value of 88.0. It was possible to predict outcome in the first hour of management of acute asthma in the emergency room when the index score was 0 or 2.
Objective To examine the effects of short-term cyclic stretch on apoptosis in alveolar type II cells (A549). To study in vitro the direct influence of alveolar type II cells on mechanical stretch. Methods A549 were treated with different doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), 0 ng/ml, 1 ng/ml, 10 ng/ml, 100 ng/ml, 1000 ng/ml, and then A549 were lengthened 5%, 15%, 30% using a FLEXCELL tension unit 4000, a vacuum-driven device that applies strain to cells, which were cultured in six-well plates coated with collagen-I, and 12 cycles/min for 4 hours. Apoptosis was measured using the flow cytometry method that measures annexin V and propidium iodide (PI) staining. The morphological changes of apoptotic cells were observed by transmission electron microscope. Results Apoptosis could be induced in alveolar type II cells (A549) by mechanical stretch. The percentage of annexin V + PI cells increased after being treated with cyclic stretch for 4 hours by 5%, 15%, 30% in all groups. The morphological features of apoptotic cells demonstrated by transmission electron microscope were as follows: shrinkage of the cell, chromatin condensation and aggregation under the nuclear membrane as a crescent or lump, membrane-encapsulated nuclear fragment or cell organ formed by invagination of the cell membrane, and apoptotic body formation followed by vacuolization. Conclusion Apoptosis induced by mechanical stretch and LPS is dose dependent. Mechanical stretch aggravates apoptosis especially in cells treated with LPS. Annexin V and PI double staining is a specific, sensitive, and quantitative method for analyzing apoptotic cells. It is also helpful to clarify the protective mechanism of low-volume ventilation in ARDS. Acknowledgement The study was funded by the 'One Hundred People' project of Shanghai Sanitary Bureau (03-77-20).
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