Respiratory Exacerbations Increase with Chronic PM Exposure in Current and Former Smokers.

Rationale: Short-term exposure to fine particulates (PM) transiently increases the risk of respiratory exacerbations, but the contribution of chronic, long-term particulate exposure to respiratory exacerbations is poorly defined.

Objectives: To assess long-term effects of PM exposure on risk of severe respiratory exacerbations.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort of current and former smokers with and without COPD were surveyed every six months for severe exacerbation events.

Dust Storms and Emergency Department Visits in 3 Southwestern States Using NWS Storm Reports.

Importance: Dust storms are projected to increase with climate change. The short-term health outcomes associated with dust storms in the US are not well characterized, especially for morbidity outcomes.

Objective: To estimate associations between dust storms and diagnosis-specific emergency department (ED) visits during 2005 to 2018.

Associations of Fire Smoke and Other Pollutants With Incident Rheumatoid Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether pollutants such as fire smoke-related particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM) are associated with incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).

Methods: This patient-control study used Veterans Affairs (VA) data from October 1, 2009, to December 31, 2018.

Sarcoidosis in Beryllium Exposed Workers: A Case-Case Study.

Background: Despite the utility of the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT), distinguishing sarcoidosis, a disease of unknown etiology, from chronic beryllium disease (CBD), has long posed a diagnostic challenge. It is unclear if beryllium-exposed sarcoidosis cases (Be-exp-Sarc) are clinically distinct from CBD, or are misdiagnosed cases of CBD.

Methods: We performed a case-case study of 40 beryllium-exposed individuals diagnosed with Be-exp-Sarc compared to 40 frequency-matched CBD cases.

Differences in the Adverse Event Burden of Corticosteroid Use in Inflammatory Bowel Disease as Reported Between Adverse Event Reporting Systems and a Patient Questionnaire.

Background And Aims: Corticosteroids are widely used in managing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While adverse events (AEs) of corticosteroids are well recognized, current understanding of corticosteroid-related AE burden in IBD remains incomplete.

Methods: AE reports for prednisone/prednisolone and budesonide were extracted from the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and VigiBase databases.

Dust storms and cardiorespiratory emergency department visits in three Southwestern United States: application of a monitoring-based exposure metric.

Climate change is projected to increase the risk of dust storms, particularly in subtropical dryland, including the southwestern US. Research on dust storm's health impacts in the US is limited and hindered by challenges in dust storm identification. This study assesses the potential link between dust storms and cardiorespiratory emergency department (ED) visits in the southwestern US.

Investigating the relationship between extreme weather and cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis in Colorado: A multi-decade study using distributed-lag nonlinear models.

Environmentally-mediated protozoan diseases like cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis are likely to be highly impacted by extreme weather, as climate-related conditions like temperature and precipitation have been linked to their survival, distribution, and overall transmission success. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between extreme temperature and precipitation and cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis infection using monthly weather data and case reports from Colorado counties over a twenty-one year period. Data on reportable diseases and weather among Colorado counties were collected using the Colorado Electronic Disease Reporting System (CEDRS) and the Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries (Daymet) Version 3 dataset, respectively.

Hawaiian Volcanic Ash, an Airborne Fomite for Nontuberculous Mycobacteria.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are environmentally acquired opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung disease. Within the U.S.

Complete genome assembly of Hawai'i environmental nontuberculous mycobacteria reveals unexpected co-isolation with methylobacteria.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous environmental opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung disease. Within the United States, Hawai'i has the highest incidence of NTM lung disease, though the precise reasons are yet to be fully elucidated. One possibility is the high prevalence of NTM in the Hawai'i environment acting as a potential reservoir for opportunistic NTM infections.

Ultrasound-Guided Injections of HYADD4 for Knee Osteoarthritis Improves Pain and Functional Outcomes at 3, 6, and 12 Months without Changes in Measured Synovial Fluid, Serum Collagen Biomarkers, or Most Synovial Fluid Biomarker Proteins at 3 Months.

Background: Prior studies have demonstrated improved efficacy when intra-articular (IA) therapeutics are injected using ultrasound (US) guidance. The aim of this study was to determine if clinical improvement in pain and function after IA hyaluronic acid injections using US is associated with changes in SF volumes and biomarker proteins at 3 months.

Methods: 49 subjects with symptomatic knee OA, BMI < 40, and KL radiographic grade II or III participated.

Evaluating Data Product Exposure Metrics for Use in Epidemiologic Studies of Dust Storms.

Dust storms are increasing in frequency and correlate with adverse health outcomes but remain understudied in the United States (U.S.), partially due to the limited spatio-temporal coverage, resolution, and accuracy of current data sets.

Early Evidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Obscured by Race-Specific Prediction Equations.

The identification of early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is essential to appropriately counsel patients regarding smoking cessation, provide symptomatic treatment, and eventually develop disease-modifying treatments. Disease severity in COPD is defined using race-specific spirometry equations. These may disadvantage non-White individuals in diagnosis and care.

Immunological and metabolic characterization of environmental Mycobacterium chimaera infection in a murine model.

Mycobacterium chimaera causes pulmonary disease, but little is known of gradations in isolate virulence. Previously, 17 M. chimaera isolates were screened for survival in THP1 macrophages.

Open-source environmental data as an alternative to snail surveys to assess schistosomiasis risk in areas approaching elimination.

Background: Although the presence of intermediate snails is a necessary condition for local schistosomiasis transmission to occur, using them as surveillance targets in areas approaching elimination is challenging because the patchy and dynamic quality of snail host habitats makes collecting and testing snails labor-intensive. Meanwhile, geospatial analyses that rely on remotely sensed data are becoming popular tools for identifying environmental conditions that contribute to pathogen emergence and persistence.

Methods: In this study, we assessed whether open-source environmental data can be used to predict the presence of human Schistosoma japonicum infections among households with a similar or improved degree of accuracy compared to prediction models developed using data from comprehensive snail surveys.

Pirfenidone in fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis: a double-blind, randomised clinical trial of efficacy and safety.

Background: Fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (FHP) is an irreversible lung disease with high morbidity and mortality. We sought to evaluate the safety and effect of pirfenidone on disease progression in such patients.

Methods: We conducted a single-centre, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial in adults with FHP and disease progression.

A nested machine learning approach to short-term PM prediction in metropolitan areas using PM data from different sensor networks.

Many predictive models for ambient PM concentrations rely on ground observations from a single monitoring network consisting of sparsely distributed sensors. Integrating data from multiple sensor networks for short-term PM prediction remains largely unexplored. This paper presents a machine learning approach to predict ambient PM concentration levels at any unmonitored location several hours ahead using PM observations from nearby monitoring sites from two sensor networks and the location's social and environmental properties.

Open-source environmental data as an alternative to snail surveys to assess schistosomiasis risk in areas approaching elimination.

Although the presence of intermediate snails is a necessary condition for local schistosomiasis transmission to occur, using them as surveillance targets in areas approaching elimination is challenging because the patchy and dynamic quality of snail host habitats makes collecting and testing snails labor-intensive. Meanwhile, geospatial analyses that rely on remotely sensed data are becoming popular tools for identifying environmental conditions that contribute to pathogen emergence and persistence. In this study, we assessed whether open-source environmental data can be used to predict the presence of human infections among households with a similar or improved degree of accuracy compared to prediction models developed using data from comprehensive snail surveys.

The Unintended Benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program for Air Quality.

The link between agriculture and air pollution is well-established, as are the benefits of the US Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). However, little research has linked CRP to air quality directly. This study aims to address this gap by modeling the relationship between CRP and fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations at the county level from 2001 to 2016.