Cytokine levels in children and adults with wheezing and asthma show specific patterns of variability over time.

Levels of cytokines are used for in-depth characterization of patients with asthma; however, the variability over time might be a critical confounder. To analyze the course of serum cytokines in children, adolescents and adults with asthma and in healthy controls and to propose statistical methods to control for seasonal effects. Of 532 screened subjects, 514 (91·5%) were included in the All Age Asthma Cohort (ALLIANCE). The cohort included 279 children with either recurrent wheezing bronchitis (more than two episodes) or doctor-diagnosed asthma, 75 healthy controls, 150 adult asthmatics and 31 adult healthy controls. Blood samples were collected and 25 µl serum was used for analysis with the Bio-Plex Pr human cytokine 27-Plex assay. Mean age, body mass index and gender in the three groups of wheezers, asthmatic children and adult asthmatics were comparable to healthy controls. Wheezers (34·5%), asthmatic children (78·7%) and adult asthmatics (62·8%) were significantly more often sensitized compared to controls (4·5, 22 and 22·6%, respectively). Considering the entire cohort, interleukin (IL)-1ra, IL-4, IL-9, IL-17, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1- α and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- α showed seasonal variability, whereas IL-1ß, IL-7, IL-8, IL-13, eotaxin, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), interferon gamma-induced protein (IP)-10, MIP-1 ß and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB did not. Significant differences between wheezers/asthmatics and healthy controls were observed for IL-17 and PDGF-BB, which remained stable after adjustment for the seasonality of IL-17. Seasonality has a significant impact on serum cytokine levels in patients with asthma. Because endotyping has achieved clinical importance to guide individualized patient-tailored therapy, it is important to account for seasonal effects.

Impact of anti-hypertension therapy on seasonal variability of blood pressure, urinary 8-OHdG levels in essential hypertension / 中国综合临床

Objective To investigate anti-hypertension threapy on seasonal variability of blood pressure,urinary 8-OHdG levels in essential hypertension in order to provide a basis for seasonal antihypertensive treatment.Methods Fifty hypertensive patients admitted the hospital of Erdos Clinical Medical College of Inner Mongolia Medical University at summer 2013 were selected as our subjects.The final subjects was 42 cases due to 8 lost cases.The patients were randomly divided into two groups,including 30 cases in renin angiotensin aldosterone system inhibitors(RASI) group and 12 cases in Ca2+ channel blocker(CCB) group.Epidata 3.1 software was applied to perform statistic analysis.Urinary 8-OHdG concentration was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Blood pressure was measured in spring,summer,autumn and winter.Results Systolic blood pressure(SBP) in RASI group and CCB group at winter periods were (158±20) mmHg,(158 ± 20) mmHg,higher than that in summer periods ((145 ± 12) mmHg,(141 ± 9) mmHg;P＜ 0.05).Diastolic blood pressure(DPB) in RASI group and CCB group at winter periods were (101 ± 13)mmHg and (100±4)mmHg,significant high than that in summer periods ((93 ±7) mmHg,(90±7) mmHg;P＜0.05).8-OhdG levels in RASI group at summer and autumn periods were (243.20±30.94) ng/L and (240.40±47.99) ng/L,significantly higher than that in winter and spring periods((190.80± 15.56) ng/L and (189.06± 13.56) ng/L),and the differences were significant(P＜0.001).No significant differences were seen in CCB group among 4 seasons in terms of 8-OhdG levels (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Blood pressure change still occur among 4 seasons in hypertensive patients after a single CCB containing RASI-based drug antihypertensive therapy.And blood pressure in winter periods is higher than that in summer,which indicates that therapy medication based on RASI might reduce the level of oxidative stress at winter periods.

Is participation in after-school physical activity associated with increased total physical activity? A study of high school pupils in the Czech Republic.

This study assessed the physical activity (PA) levels and its variability across days, months and seasons of two groups of high school pupils: those who did and those who did not participate in regular organized after-school physical activity (ASPA). Thirteen pupils wore pedometers continuously for one school-year, logged their step counts into record sheets and were then interviewed for information as regards their participation in any ASPA. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed that regardless of the day, month and season, ASPA pupils achieved significantly more mean step counts/day than the non-ASPA pupils. There were no significant fluctuations across months and seasons in PA levels of ASPA pupils when compared to non-ASPA pupils. We conclude that regular organised ASPA might increase the pupils' total PA levels; and could help to maintain a relatively constant PA level for adolescents across the whole school-year regardless of the influences of a range of weather and meteorological indicators that are related to months/seasons.