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Abstract Background The evidence regarding effects of statins on exacerbation risk in COPD remains controversial. Previous studies often excluded patients with cardiovascular comorbidities despite their high prevalence in COPD and role for exacerbations. Based on the cardioprotective properties of statins, we hypothesised that statins may reduce the risk of exacerbations especially in patients with cardiovascular comorbidities. Methods One thousand eight hundred eighty seven patients of the German COPD cohort COSYCONET (COPD and Systemic Consequences Comorbidities Network) of GOLD grades 1–4 (37.8% female, mean age 64.78 ± 8.3) were examined at baseline and over a period of 4.5 years for the occurrence of at least one exacerbation or severe exacerbation per year in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses adjusted for age, gender, BMI, GOLD grade and pack-years. Due to their collinearity, various cardiovascular diseases were tested in separate analyses, whereby the potential effect of statins in the presence of a specific comorbidity was tested as interaction between statins and comorbidity. We also identified patients who never took statins, always took statins, or initiated statin intake during the follow-up. Results One thousand three hundred six patients never took statins, 31.6% were statin user, and 12.9% initiated statins during the follow-up. Most cardiovascular diseases were significantly (p

Abstract Background MRproANP and COPAVP are prognostic markers for mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Furthermore, these biomarkers predict mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, which are important prognostically determining comorbidities in patients with COPD. However, less is known about these biomarkers in recently diagnosed mild to moderate COPD. Therefore, we analyzed these biomarkers as potential predictors of mortality in recently diagnosed mild to moderate COPD. Methods The blood biomarkers considered were copeptin (COPAVP), midregional adrenomedullin (MRproADM), midregional proatrial naturetic peptide (MRproANP), and fibrinogen. Analyses were performed in patients with stable “recently diagnosed mild to moderate COPD” defined by GOLD grades 0–2 and diagnosis of COPD ≤ 5 years prior to inclusion into the COSYCONET cohort (COPD and Systemic Consequences—Comorbidities Network), using Cox regression analysis with stepwise adjustment for multiple COPD characteristics, comorbidities, troponin and NT-proBNP. Results 655 patients with recently diagnosed mild to moderate COPD were included. In the initial regression model, 43 of 655 patients died during the 6-year follow-up, in the final model 27 of 487. Regression analyses with adjustment for confounders identified COPAVP and MRproANP as statistically robust biomarkers (p

Abstract Exposure to beryllium (Be) can lead to lung pathologies, such as chronic beryllium disease (CBD). This occupational illness has been more prevalent among dental technicians compared to the non-exposed population. Although most manufacturers state that dental materials are Be-free, this prevalence raises the question of whether the materials are completely devoid of Be-traces. Thus, the objective of the present study was to analyze the elemental composition, with emphasis on Be, of a wide range of commercially available dental materials frequently used by dental laboratories. Samples of 32 different materials were collected and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The results showed that the Be content was below the limit of quantification in all included samples (

While young muscle faithfully regenerates damaged myofibers, aged muscle is impaired. Here the authors show the “anti-aging” protein α-Klotho is upregulated in young muscle after damage via promoter demethylation and this regulation is lost in aging, resulting in mitochondrial damage and an impaired healing response.

Asthma often remains uncontrolled, despite the fact that the pharmacological treatment has undergone large changes. We studied changes in the treatment of asthma over a 20-year period and identified factors associated with the regular use of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment. Changes in the use of medication were determined in 4617 randomly selected subjects, while changes in adults with persistent asthma were analysed in 369 participants. The study compares data from three surveys in 24 centres in 11 countries. The use of ICSs increased from 1.7% to 5.9% in the general population and the regular use of ICSs increased from 19% to 34% among persistent asthmatic subjects. The proportion of asthmatic subjects reporting asthma attacks in the last 12 months decreased, while the proportion that had seen a doctor in the last 12 months remained unchanged (42%). Subjects with asthma who had experienced attacks or had seen a doctor were more likely to use ICSs on a regular basis. Although ICS use has increased, only one-third of subjects with persistent asthma take ICSs on a regular basis. Less than half had seen a doctor during the last year. This indicates that underuse of ICSs and lack of regular healthcare contacts remains a problem in the management of asthma.

Modern condensation particle counters (CPCs) are indispensable instruments for studies of aerosols in all measurement environments. Relying on heterogeneous nucleation as the basic principle, the composition dependence of particle activation is a source of profound uncertainty for the accurate assessment of new particle formation (NPF) events. While development efforts successfully pushed down minimum detectable particle sizes in recent years, composition-dependent counting efficiencies have remained to be a persisting issue in aerosol research. Addressing this pressing problem, we present calibrations of a newly developed CPC, the Airmodus A30 (Airmodus Ltd., Helsinki, Finland), that uses non-hazardous propylene glycol as working fluid. Our results conclusively demonstrate that composition-dependent particle detection can be reduced to the brink of disappearance by choice of the working fluid and corresponding high supersaturation. Counting efficiencies were determined for a set of size-selected and chemically diverse seed particles, and the measured 50 % cutoff diameters were compared to previous studies. Using computational fluid dynamics simulations, we show that the composition dependence appears to decrease with increasing saturation ratios achieved inside the CPC. Hence, our study assists in the development of future CPCs and elucidates a potential mechanism to reduce measurement uncertainties arising from composition-dependent counting efficiencies.

New particle formation (NPF) is a major source of aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei in the troposphere, playing an important role in both air quality and climate. Frequent NPF events have been observed in heavily polluted urban environments, contributing to the aerosol number concentration by a significant amount. The Po Valley region in northern Italy has been characterized as a hotspot for high aerosol loadings and frequent NPF events in southern Europe. However, the mechanisms of NPF and growth in this region are not completely understood. In this study, we conducted a continuous 2-month measurement campaign with state-of-the-art instruments to elucidate the NPF and growth mechanisms in northern Italy. Our results demonstrate that frequent NPF events (66 % of all days during the measurement campaign) are primarily driven by abundant sulfuric acid (8.5×106 cm−3) and basic molecules in this area. In contrast, oxygenated organic molecules from the atmospheric oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) appear to play a minor role in the initial cluster formation but contribute significantly to the consecutive growth process. Regarding alkaline molecules, amines are insufficient to stabilize all sulfuric acid clusters in the Po Valley. Ion cluster measurements and kinetic models suggest that ammonia (10 ppb) must therefore also play a role in the nucleation process. Generally, the high formation rates of sub-2 nm particles (87 cm−3 s−1) and nucleation-mode growth rates (5.1 nm h−1) as well as the relatively low condensational sink (8.9×10-3 s−1) will result in a high survival probability for newly formed particles, making NPF crucial for the springtime aerosol number budget. Our results also indicate that reducing key pollutants, such as SO2, amine and NH3, could help to substantially decrease the particle number concentrations in the Po Valley region.

Aerosol particles have an important role in Earth's radiation balance and climate, both directly and indirectly through aerosol–cloud interactions. Most aerosol particles in the atmosphere are weakly charged, affecting both their collision rates with ions and neutral molecules, as well as the rates by which they are scavenged by other aerosol particles and cloud droplets. The rate coefficients between ions and aerosol particles are important since they determine the growth rates and lifetimes of ions and charged aerosol particles, and so they may influence cloud microphysics, dynamics, and aerosol processing. However, despite their importance, very few experimental measurements exist of charged aerosol collision rates under atmospheric conditions, where galactic cosmic rays in the lower troposphere give rise to ion pair concentrations of around 1000 cm−3. Here we present measurements in the CERN CLOUD chamber of the rate coefficients between ions and small ( nm) aerosol particles containing up to 9 elementary charges, e. We find the rate coefficient of a singly charged ion with an oppositely charged particle increases from 2.0 (0.4–4.4) × 10−6 cm3 s−1 to 30.6 (24.9–45.1) × 10−6 cm3 s−1 for particles with charges of 1 to 9 e, respectively, where the parentheses indicate the ±1σ uncertainty interval. Our measurements are compatible with theoretical predictions and show excellent agreement with the model of Gatti and Kortshagen (2008).

Currently, the complete chemical characterization of nanoparticles (< 100 nm) represents an analytical challenge, since these particles are abundant in number but have negligible mass. Several methods for particle-phase characterization have been recently developed to better detect and infer more accurately the sources and fates of sub-100 nm particles, but a detailed comparison of different approaches is missing. Here we report on the chemical composition of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) nanoparticles from experimental studies of α-pinene ozonolysis at −50, −30, and −10 ∘C and intercompare the results measured by different techniques. The experiments were performed at the Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD) chamber at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The chemical composition was measured simultaneously by four different techniques: (1) thermal desorption–differential mobility analyzer (TD–DMA) coupled to a NO3- chemical ionization–atmospheric-pressure-interface–time-of-flight (CI–APi–TOF) mass spectrometer, (2) filter inlet for gases and aerosols (FIGAERO) coupled to an I− high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (HRToF-CIMS), (3) extractive electrospray Na+ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (EESI-TOF), and (4) offline analysis of filters (FILTER) using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and heated electrospray ionization (HESI) coupled to an Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS). Intercomparison was performed by contrasting the observed chemical composition as a function of oxidation state and carbon number, by estimating the volatility and comparing the fraction of volatility classes, and by comparing the thermal desorption behavior (for the thermal desorption techniques: TD–DMA and FIGAERO) and performing positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis for the thermograms. We found that the methods generally agree on the most important compounds that are found in the nanoparticles. However, they do see different parts of the organic spectrum. We suggest potential explanations for these differences: thermal decomposition, aging, sampling artifacts, etc. We applied PMF analysis and found insights of thermal decomposition in the TD–DMA and the FIGAERO.