Asthma-6

The fundamental problem in asthma appears to be immunological: young children in the early stages of asthma show signs of excessive inflammation in their airways. Epidemiological findings give clues as to the pathogenesis: the incidence of asthma seems to be increasing worldwide, and asthma is now very much more common in affluent countries

Pathogenesis

Andor Szentivanyi first described The Beta Adrenergic Theory of Asthma; in which blockage of the Beta-2 receptors of pulmonary smooth muscle cells causes asthma. Szentivanyi's Beta Adrenergic Theory is a citation classic and has been cited more times than any other article in the history of the Journal of Allergy.

In 1995 Szentivanyi and colleagues demonstrated that IgE blocks beta-2 receptors. Since overproduction of IgE is central to all atopic diseases, this was a watershed moment in the world of allergy.

The Beta-Adrenergic Theory has been cited in the scholarship of such noted investigators as Richard F. Lockey (former President of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology), Charles Reed (Chief of Allergy at Mayo Medical School),[28] and Craig Venter (Human Genome Project).

John P. McGovern, President of the American Association of Allergy nominated Szentivanyi for The 1968 Nobel Prize in Medicine in recognition of The Beta Adrenergic Theory.

In 2006, Researchers at Harvard Medical School found evidence that asthma is caused by over-proliferation of a special type of natural "killer" cell.

All text is available under the GNU free documentation lisence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License

Links

Index page

Previous: Pathophysiology - Stimuli

Next:  Asthma and associated problems

Find Healthcare Sales jobs here