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Background Measurement of lung function during tidal breathing is an important method in the diagnosis, management and severity assessment for infants with respiratory diseases. Nasal obstruction is a common comorbidity of respiratory tract infections, and severe nasal obstructionmay affect the results of pulmonary function test. Objective To assess the association of nasal obstruction with pulmonary function and airway resistance during tidal breathing, and to evaluate the effect of normal saline nasal drops on relieving nasal congestion and improving pulmonary function in infants with wheezing. Methods A total of 55 children with wheezing were included, including wheezing with nasal congestion in 25 cases and wheezing without nasal congestion in 30 cases. Fifty-five infants with wheezing as the chief symptom who were treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University were retrospectively selected from June 2015 to May 2016. They received the measurement of pulmonary function during tidal breathing, respiratory resistance using the respiratory resistance tester with single-breath method and body plethysmography. Nasal obstruction was assessed, and those with three points were excluded, the remaining infants with 0 and 1-2 points were assigned to wheezing without nasal obstruction group (n=30), wheezing with nasal obstruction group (n=25), respectively. Baseline lung functions were compared between wheezing with nasal obstruction group before nasal obstruction treatment and without nasal obstruction group. And pulmonary functions of wheezing with nasal obstruction group were compared before and after nasal obstruction treatment. Results Wheezing infants with nasal obstruction had higher specific effective airway resistance (sReff) and effective airway resistance (Reff) than those without (P

Objective. To summarize the clinical characteristics and treatment experiences of patients with plastic bronchitis (PB). Methods. All patients who were diagnosed with PB by bronchoscopic removal of tree‐like casts at a single institution from January 2012 to May 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic and clinical data were retrieved from electronic patient records. Results. A total of 55 patients, with a median age of 5.3 years, were eligible for the study. Nineteen cases had underlying diseases, among which asthma was the most common. The median course of the disease before admission was 11 days. Clinical symptoms were characterized by cough and fever, while moist rales (78.2%) and dyspnea (61.8%) were the most common signs. The most common laboratory finding was elevated C‐reactive protein (58.2%). Patchy opacity was the most frequent radiographic finding (81.2%), followed by consolidation (60.0%) and pleural effusion (43.6%). Respiratory pathogens were detected in 41 cases, and M. pneumoniae was the most common one (41.8%), followed by adenovirus (20.0%) and influenza B virus (10.9%). The casts were removed by alveolar lavage, combined with ambroxol immersion (63.6%) and forceps (30.9%). Patients received an average of 2.3 bronchoscopies, and the median time for the first procedure was 3 days after admission. Antibiotics were given to all patients, methylprednisolone to 33 (60.0%), and gamma globulin to 25 (45.5%). A total of 53 cases were improved with an overall mortality rate of 3.6%. Conclusions. PB in children is characterized by airway obstruction, mostly caused by respiratory infections, and timely removal of the cast by bronchoscopy is the most effective treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is a chronic disease that can arise as a complication of severe childhood pneumonia and can also impact the long-term survival of patients after lung transplantation. However, the precise molecular mechanism underlying BO remains unclear. We aimed to identify BO-associated hub genes and their molecular mechanisms.Methods: BO-associated transcriptome datasets (GSE52761, GSE137169, and GSE94557) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Additional bioinformatics analyses, such as Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) analyses, were performed to determine functional roles and DEG-associated regulatory networks. Prediction of hub genes using the 12 algorithms available in the Cytohubba plugin of Cytoscape software was also performed. Verification was performed using the BO mouse model.Results: Our results revealed 57 DEGs associated with BO, of which 18 were down-regulated and 39 were up-regulated. The Cytohubba plugin data further narrowed down the 57 DEGs into 9 prominent hub genes (CCR2, CD1D, GM2A, TFEC, MPEG1, CTSS, GPNMB, BIRC2, and CTSZ). Genes such as CCR2, TFEC, MPEG1, CTSS, and CTSZ were dysregulated in 2,3-butanedione-induced BO mice, whereas TFEC, CTSS, and CTSZ were dysregulated in nitric acid-induced BO mouse models.Conclusion: Our study identified and validated four novel BO biomarkers, which may allow further investigation into the development of distinct BO diagnostic markers and novel therapeutic avenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important virus that causes lower respiratory tract disease in children; efficient viral identification is an important component of disease prevention and treatment. Here, we developed and evaluated a ready‐to‐use (RTU) nucleic acid extraction‐free direct reagent for identification of RSV (RTU‐Direct test) in clinical samples. The limit of detection (LOD) of the RSV RTU‐Direct test was consistent with the LOD of the standard test using extracted nucleic acids. The virus inactivation ability of RTU‐Direct reagent was confirmed by viral infectivity assays involving RTU‐Direct‐treated samples containing RSV and human coronavirus OC43. RSV RNA stability was significantly better in RTU‐Direct reagent than in conventional virus transport medium (VTM) at room temperature and 4°C (p < 0.05). The clinical performance of the RTU‐Direct test was evaluated using 155 respiratory specimens from patients with suspected RSV infection. Positive agreement between the RTU‐Direct test and the VTM standard test was 100% (42/42); negative agreement was 99.1% (112/113), and the kappa statistic was 0.968 (p < 0.001). The distributions of Ct values did not significantly differ between the RTU‐Direct test and the standard test (p > 0.05). Overall, the RTU‐Direct reagent can improve the efficiency and biosafety of RSV detection, while reducing the cost of detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]