Results from a French study confirm an association between exposure to fungal spores in the home and asthma or bronchitis-like symptoms, particularly in rural areas. (Source: MedWire News - Respiratory)

Summary: Unlike in adults, pulmonary embolism (PE) is an infrequent event in children. It has a marked bimodal distribution during the paediatric years, occurring predominantly in neonates and adolescents. The most important predisposing factors to PE in children are the presence of a central venous line (CVL), infection, and congenital heart disease. Clinical signs of PE are non-specific in children or can be masked by underlying conditions. Diagnostic testing is necessary in children, especially with the lack of clinical prediction rules. Recommendations for tests are derived from adult studies with ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy being well established. There exists an increasing role for computerised tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and magnetic resonance pulmonary angi...

Summary: Interest in ultrafine particles (UFP) has been increasing due to their specific physico-chemical characteristics. Ultrafine particles are those with an aerodynamic diameter of (Source: Paediatric Respiratory Reviews)

Summary: Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) are the building blocks of novel materials and consumer products that hold great promise for our societies. When ENPs are released to the environment, however, they can induce irreversible processes that can affect human health. To ensure safety for all nanoparticle-based products throughout their life cycle we urgently need to develop techniques for determining their toxic effects and the exposure levels of humans to ENPs. In an attempt to estimate whether nanotechnology can threaten more sensitive parts of the population such as children, we provide a brief overview of the potential pathways of introducing ENPs into the environment and the state-of-the-art techniques for assessing human exposure, as well as our current knowledge on their toxic eff...