Evaluation of cleaning activities on respiratory symptoms in asthmatic female homemakers.

BACKGROUND: Asthma among professional cleaners is recognized as a common cause of new-onset and aggravated occupational asthma. Women are usually the primary persons responsible for cleaning their homes, but little information is available regarding the health impact of cleaning in the nonoccupational setting. OBJECTIVES: To compare health effects of cleaning among asthmatic and nonasthmatic women who are the primary cleaners in their homes. METHODS: A 12-week, prospective, parallel-group study assessing the effects of cleaning on peak expiratory flow rates and upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms in women with and without asthma. RESULTS: Twenty-five women with asthma and 19 without asthma, ages 18 to 65 years, completed the study. No effect was observed on peak expiratory flow rates after cleaning between groups. Upper respiratory tract symptoms increased after cleaning for both groups, adjusted for chemical severity exposure index and duration of cleaning. However, the change in the number of lower respiratory tract symptoms (after cleaning minus before cleaning) was statistically significant for asthmatic patients compared with nonasthmatic patients (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that cleaning activities are associated with increased lower respiratory tract symptoms in asthmatic patients independent of chemical severity exposure index and cleaning duration. Women with asthma should be routinely interviewed as to whether they clean their home and cautioned about the potential respiratory health effects of these activities.

Olfactory receptor gene polymorphisms and nonallergic vasomotor rhinitis.

We sought a genotype-phenotype association: between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in olfactory receptor (OR) genes from the two largest OR gene clusters and odor-triggered nonallergic vasomotor rhinitis (nVMR). In the initial pedigree screen, using transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) analysis, six SNPs showed "significant" p-values between 0.0449 and 0.0043. In a second case-control population, the previously identified six SNPs did not re-emerge, whereas four new SNPs showed p-values between 0.0490 and 0.0001. Combining both studies, none of the SNPs in the TDT analysis survived the Bonferroni correction. In the population study, one SNP showed an empirical p-value of 0.0066 by shuffling cases and controls with 10(5) replicates; however, the p-value for this SNP was 0.83 in the pedigree study. This study emphasizes that underpowered studies having p-values between < 0.05 and 0.0001 should be regarded as inconclusive and require further replication before concluding the study is "informative." However, we believe that our hypothesis that an association between OR genotypes and the nVMR phenotype remains feasible. Future studies using either a genomewide association study of all OR gene-pseudogene regions throughout the genome--at the current recommended density of 2.5 to 5 kb per tag SNP--or studies incorporating microarray analyses of the entire "OR genome" in well-characterized nVMR patients are required.

A multidisciplinary online educational database.

BACKGROUND: Before the introduction of the Trent online educational database there was no central resource that potential purchasers could use to access information on clinically relevant courses and programmes of professional development. The online database enables cancer centres, cancer units, and education and training confederations to identify current provision of cancer education and training courses in Trent. CONCLUSION: The electronic online evaluation identified that the majority of users felt the information they found was relevant and that they would recommend the database to colleagues. They also felt that it was easy to find the information they required and the information was presented in a useful and appropriate format.