S F Thomsen

..The tendency to develop asthma runs in families, but whether the severity of asthma symptoms is inherited is not known...

..We estimated differences in the severity of respiratory syncytial virus infection attributable to genetic and environmental factors...

..We emphasize that multivariate methods applied to twin studies, especially when genetic marker information is available, provide a valuable framework within which complex etiological mechanisms underlying atopy can be disentangled...

..We review some of the possible explanations for these findings and conclude that results from twin studies of asthma can be extrapolated to the general population...

..16 (1.03-4.53), p = 0.041. Frequent intake of paracetamol is an independent risk factor for adult-onset asthma...

..Severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is associated with asthma but the nature of this association is imperfectly understood...

..Causes and treatment are reviewed, and it is concluded that the condition, even in its chronic refractory form, has a favourable prognosis...

..Asthma is a complex disease characterized by symptoms of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and cough...

..Although the genetics of asthma susceptibility have been frequently explored, little is known about genetic factors that influence the age at onset of asthma...

..To examine the relationship between asthma, type 2 diabetes and increased body mass index (BMI) in adult twins...

..To study the association between type 1 diabetes and atopic diseases in a twin population...

..We examined whether the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence susceptibility to asthma has changed between 1994 and 2003...

..98). The estimates were adjusted for age. The susceptibility to develop atopic dermatitis is attributable to mainly genetic differences between people. However, differences in environmental exposures also are of importance...

..There is evidence suggesting that the prevalence of asthma has increased, especially in industrialized countries...

..The objectives of this study were to determine the incidence of asthma and to establish the risk factors for the development of asthma in subjects who were 12 to 41 years old over an 8-year period...

..Knowledge of secular trends in the prevalence of allergy among children stems in large part from questionnaire surveys, whereas repeated cross-sectional studies using objective markers of atopic sensitization are sparse...

..The susceptibility to develop hay fever is putatively the result both of genetic and environmental causes. We estimated the significance and magnitude of genetic and environmental contributions to hay fever among young adult twins...

..Parental knowledge of atopic heredity significantly influences smoking and breast-feeding habits...

..Atopic traits often co-occur and this can potentially be caused by common aetiological relationships between traits, i.e. a common genetic or a common environmental background...

..To estimate to what extent the same genetic and environmental risk factors influence asthma, hay fever and eczema...

..Obesity is linked to asthma in a yet poorly understood manner. We examined the relationship between obesity and asthma in a population-based sample of twins...

..The aim of this study was to describe differences between allergic rhinitis (AR) and nonallergic rhinitis (NAR) in a large community-based sample of Danish adolescents and adults...

..The liability to asthma is influenced both by genetic and environmental factors. The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for asthma in young adult twin pairs during an 8-year period...

..We studied disease severity, airway responsiveness, atopy, quality of life and treatment in subjects with both asthma and rhinitis compared to patients with asthma or rhinitis alone...

..This paper reports twin concordance and heritability estimates of sarcoidosis in order to assess the overall contribution of genetic factors to the disease susceptibility...

..To examine the airway response to inhaled mannitol performed before or after a methacholine challenge test in a group of asthmatics with different levels of disease...

..To study the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the correlation between exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), airway responsiveness, airway obstruction, and serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE)...

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..Mannitol is an osmotic stimulus that acts indirectly to cause airway narrowing by release of endogenous bronchoconstricting mediators...

..In addition, we found that AD was significantly associated with AHR, rhinitis, and elevated levels of IgE, supporting the idea of the atopic triad...

..Most likely, alteration of inflammatory cell function and extracellular matrix turnover caused by smoking-induced oxidative stress are involved in the pathophysiologic mechanisms...

..To examine the relationship between birth weight and risk of asthma in a population of twins...

..Season of birth (SOB) has been regarded as a risk factor for atopy. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between season of birth (SOB) and later development of atopic disease in children and adolescents...

..However, our finding that Greenlanders living in settlements had the highest lung function level also suggests a possible role of factors in the traditional Greenlandic lifestyle...

..These results underline the importance of using objective measurements such as skin test reactivity when estimating time trends in the prevalence of allergic airways disease, as clinical interviews alone can be misleading...

..The pathophysiology, the pathogenesis, and the treatment of the condition are not yet clarified. At present, a population-based study is being conducted in order to address these points...

..It is therefore important to measure phenotypes and to perform genome-wide scans of COPD patients in order to unravel the contribution of the COPD susceptibility genes...