Researchers studying diet during late pregnancy showed that total maternal vitamin C intake was positively associated with wheeze in certain infants who did not have a cold during their second year of life. Initially involving 1,924 youngsters born of 2,000 mothers who volunteered for the study, 1,300 women completed the entire 2-year program. They answered the 145-item food frequency questionnaire used to characterize diet during pregnancy, took a scratch test to determine allergic reactions, had blood antioxidant levels measured, and completed all follow-up health questionnaires about their children at 6, 12, and 24 months of age. The investigators related that, in the second year of life, 77 children were reported to have wheezed in the absence of a cold. The authors also found that maternal vitamin C intake was related to parental reporting of eczema during at least one time period at follow-up. In addition, they revealed that one portion of fruit per day was positively associated with eczema in the second year of the child's life. According to the authors, there were no statistically significant associations between eczema in the first 2 years of life and total maternal intake of vitamin E, beta-carotene, selenium, magnesium, copper, or zinc. The study appears in the second issue for January 2005 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

NEW COMBINATION THERAPY FOR ASTHMA PROVIDES CONSISTENT RELIEF FOR PATIENTS

A successful trial of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) combined with a long-acting beta2-agonist (budesonide/formoterol) was part of a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group study of 2,760 asthma patients. The research revealed a 45 percent lower exacerbation rate, a reduction in overall severe exacerbation levels, a delay in exacerbation ons
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Contact: Cathy Carlomagno
ccarlomagno@thoracic.org
212-315-6442
American Thoracic Society
17-Jan-2005