Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may have a new treatment option, according to researchers in Japan.

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A drug developed to fight cancer is showing early promise as a treatment for pulmonary hypertension, researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center report May 19 at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Toronto, Canada.

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University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have achieved promising results with a potential new weapon against respiratory syncytial virus, the most common cause of infant hospitalization in the United States.

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Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital today announced the start of the EASE (Exhale Airway Stents for Emphysema) Trial, an international, multi-center clinical trial to explore an investigational treatment that may offer a significant new option for those suffering with advanced emphysema. The study focuses on a new procedure, called airway bypass, that involves creating pathways in the lung for trapped air (one of the primary causes of shortness breath) to escape.

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Pulmonary embolism (blood clot in lung vessels) is a common, serious and sometimes deadly condition that is also difficult to diagnose. It’s responsible for 5-10% of all deaths in the United States each year.

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Sarasota Memorial Hospital set to begin the EASE clinical trial

Researchers at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System today announced the start of the EASE (Exhale Airway Stents for Emphysema) Trial, an international, multi-center clinical trial to explore an investigational treatment that may offer a significant new, minimally-invasive option for those suffering with advanced widespread emphysema. The study focuses on a procedure called airway bypass that involves creating pathways in the lung for trapped air to escape and in turn, relieve emphysema symptoms including shortness of breath.

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Doctors at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester are collaborating in the use of a magnetic resonance technique to image and quantify the air spaces inside the lungs — and the results of their research may lead to a link between childhood disease and later degenerative lung disease.

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Treatment with ibuprofen is associated with a significantly slower rate of decline in lung function in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis, according to a new study.

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A new model to predict the spread of emerging diseases has been developed by researchers in the US, Italy, and France. The model, described in the online open access journal BMC Medicine, could give healthcare professionals advance warning of the path an emerging disease might take and so might improve emergency responses and control.

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Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADLS), today announced positive results from Trial CL-05, the second of two pivotal phase III clinical trials designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of cethromycin, a novel once-a-day oral antibiotic for the treatment of mild-to-moderate community acquired pneumonia (CAP), the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The primary efficacy endpoint of statistical non-inferiority in the clinical cure rate at the test-of-cure visit was achieved. The study results showed that cethromycin cured 94.0% of patients with CAP, compared to Biaxin® (clarithromycin), a current standard of care treatment for CAP, which cured 93.8% of studied patients in the per protocol population. In the modified intent to treat population, cethromycin cured 83.1% of patients and Biaxin cured 81.1%. Cethromycin also demonstrated favorable safety results, with reported side effects similar to or less than those seen with Biaxin.

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