New Australian research into lung disease and asthma
20 March 2001
Australian researchers have identified for the first time a pool of genes that increase the risk of lung disease in smokers.
The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Brisbane has heard that naturally occurring variations in these genes may partly explain why some people develop smoking-related lung disease and others don’t, and why some people with lung disease deteriorate more rapidly than others.
According to Dr Ian Yang, a chest physician from the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, certain genes appear to increase the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after exposure to tobacco smoke.
Other genes can help predict which patients with COPD are likely to have more severe disease or reduced capacity to fight off associated lung infections.
COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is a debilitating smoking-related disease estimated to affect up to one in 10 Australians aged over 45 years. It is the third major cause of disability in Australia behind heart disease and stroke.
Dr Yang said that knowledge of increased risk for COPD, based on a person’s genetic make-up, might ultimately help to individualise prevention and treatment for the disease.
These findings, he said, made it even more important for smokers at risk to quit.
Asthma and menstruation
Researchers at Brisbane’s Mater Misericordiae Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital have found that asthma symptoms in women often deteriorate in the days before or during menstruation.
The researchers believe that female sex hormones may be responsible for cyclic fluctuations in asthma severity and almost half of the women studied were shown to have deterioration in asthma symptoms before or during their menstrual period.
Reporting the findings to the conference, Dr Glenn Rice-McDonald said the deterioration in asthma was related to diminishing levels of progesterone before menstruation.
Also, women whose asthma symptoms deteriorated also experienced a significantly longer period of menstruation and higher levels of premenstrual tension.
'When seeing female patients with asthma, not many doctors consider the link between asthma symptoms and the menstrual cycle,' Dr Rice-McDonald said. 'However, it does need to be considered as a potential trigger of asthma.'
Of the 51 women whose asthma symptoms and menstrual cycles were studied, 47 per cent experienced worse asthma symptoms in either the week before or during their period.
But interestingly, when asked if they thought there might be a link between their symptoms and their menstrual cycle, most women thought not.
Last Reviewed: 22 March 2001
