Does omeprazole (Prilosec) improve respiratory function in asthmatics with gastroesophageal reflux?

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is common among patients with asthma, and it has been speculated that high GER may exacerbate asthma in some. This study was designed to determine if suppression of acid reflux in patients with asthma would improve pulmonary function. A double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study design was used to determine the effect of GER suppression with omeprazole (20 mg twice daily) on pulmonary function among asthmatic patients with esophagitis. Four of 15 (27%) asthma patients with GER were shown to have a≥20% net improvement in pulmonary function (FEV₁) after treatment for six weeks with omeprazole. These results indicate that some patients with asthma and GER will have improved pulmonary function when acid GER is treated with omeprazole.     

Emerging organisms in a tertiary healthcare set up

Background

One-tenth of all infectious diseases are attributable to emerging organisms. As emerging organisms sporadically affect a relatively small percentage of population they are not studied at large. This study was aimed at studying the characteristics of emerging organisms encountered from various clinical samples in an apex tertiary care multispeciality teaching and research hospital.

Methods

16,918 positive isolates obtained from 66,323 culture samples processed in the clinical microbiology lab of an apex multispeciality hospital during 2011–2012 were included after a pilot study. Both manual and automated systems were used for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility. The frequency of isolation, sources, referring centers, resistance and susceptibility profiles, phenotypic characteristics and number of reports in PubMed were studied.

Results

Out of 16,918 isolates, 13,498 (79.78%) were Gram negative bacteria, 3254 (19.23%) were Gram positive bacteria and 166 (0.98%) were yeasts. A total of 483 (2.85%, 95% CI 2.6%–3.1%) emerging organisms including 116 (0.69%, 95% CI 0.57%–0.81%) emerging species were identified comprising 54 genera.

Conclusion

Emerging organisms are likely to evade routine identification or be disregarded as non-contributory. Astute efforts directed at identification of emerging isolates, decisions by clinical microbiologists and treating physicians and containment of infection are required.