Atypical Bacterial Infection as an Asthma Risk Factor

描述(由申请人提供) 哮喘是一种炎症性肺部疾病，会导致慢性气流阻塞， 对公众健康有重大影响。有越来越多的证据表明 在一部分患者中，支原体肺部感染和 衣原体感染与慢性哮喘有关。这项研究旨在测试 肺炎支原体或衣原体慢性感染的假说 肺炎的种类是发展或恶化的危险因素。 哮喘。一组有临床病史和 放射学上明显的肺炎支原体和肺炎衣原体感染 大约九年前已经被确认。这个队列中的所有受试者 用培养物检测活动性支原体或衣原体感染 呼吸道分泌物的聚合酶链式反应分析 血清学。这些患者将使用呼吸系统症状进行研究 用于确定该队列九年中哮喘患病率的问卷调查 在曝光之后。在这项研究的问卷部分之后， 将对队列的子集进行额外的测试，以进一步 描述临床、生理、炎症和微生物学 这些患者的特征。 这一系列调查旨在确定 非典型细菌感染对慢性粒细胞白血病的发生和临床表型的影响 哮喘。对支原体和衣原体关系的认识 物种和哮喘是加深我们对哮喘的认识的关键 发病机制，并提供了干预措施针对 初级预防可能是基于。将感染识别为一种风险 慢性哮喘的因素将是我们能力的一个显著进步 预测哪些患者患哮喘的可能性增加，并 将有助于设计和实施有针对性的尝试，以减少 哮喘发病率。 此处描述的调查将作为 以病人为中心的全面职业发展规划 研究。有了这个奖项，候选人将接受方法方面的教育 作为公共卫生硕士学位的一部分，以患者为中心的研究 哈佛大学公共卫生学院的项目，然后将应用这些技能 在说教环境中学习到的这项研究的实施 协议。候选人打算用这笔奖金来支持自己的职业生涯 开发计划将确保他作为一名学术内科医生-科学家取得成功 专注于以病人为导向的肺部疾病研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Asthma, an inflammatory lung disease which causes chronic airflow obstruction, has a significant impact on the public health. There is mounting evidence that, in a subset of patients, pulmonary infection with mycoplasma and chlamydia is associated with chronic asthma. This study is designed to test the hypothesis that chronic infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae or Chlamydia pneumoniae species is a risk factor for the development or worsening of asthma. A cohort of subjects with a history of clinically- and radiographically- evident M. pneumoniae and C. pneumoniae infection approximately nine years ago has been identified. All subjects in this cohort were tested for active mycoplasma or chlamydia infection with culture and polymerase chain reaction analysis of respiratory tract secretions, as well as serology. These patients will be studied using a respiratory symptoms questionnaire to determine the prevalence of asthma in this cohort nine years after the exposure. Following the questionnaire component of this study, additional testing will be performed on a subset of the cohort to further describe the clinical, physiologic, inflammatory and microbiologic characteristics of these patients. This series of investigations is designed to identify the importance of atypical bacterial infection to the development and clinical phenotype of asthma. An understanding of the association between mycoplasma and chlamydia species and asthma is critical to furthering our knowledge of asthma pathogenesis and provides the foundation on which interventions aimed at primary prevention may be based. The identification of infection as a risk factor for chronic asthma would be a significant advance in our ability to predict which patients have an increased likelihood of developing asthma and would facilitate the design and implementation of targeted attempts to reduce asthma incidence. The investigations described herein will be conducted as part of a comprehensive career development program in the methods of patient-oriented research. With this award, the candidate will become educated in the methods of patient-oriented research as part of a Master in Public Health degree program at the Harvard School of Public Health and will then apply the skills learned in the didactic setting to the implementation of this research protocol. The candidate is intent upon using this award to support a career development program that will ensure his success as an academic physician-scientist with a focus on patient-oriented research in diseases of the lungs.