- Title
- Systemic inflammation in obstructive airway disease
- Creator
- Fu, Juan-juan
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Obstructive airway disease (OAD) such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common respiratory conditions affecting people of all age and imposing significant socioeconomic burden. Distinct phenotypes and enhanced airway inflammation and immune dysfunction are typical features of OAD and have been widely studied. Airway inflammation has been shown to relate to adverse clinical outcomes such as exacerbations in asthma. Systemic inflammation, characterized by minor increase in the circulating inflammatory cells or mediators, has been increasingly recognized as an important feature of COPD. The role of systemic inflammation in OAD is not well understood. While systemic inflammation is associated with COPD comorbidity and may be involved in the disease progression in terms of exacerbation and mortality in COPD, its presence in asthma and potentially in asthma-COPD overlap syndrome and the clinical relevance are still unknown. It is also unclear if there is an association between systemic inflammation and airway inflammation, and how this relates to disease progression. The aim of this thesis was to investigate systemic inflammation in different phenotypes of OAD including asthma and COPD. The proportion of asthma-COPD overlap syndrome increases with age, therefore this specific phenotype was also assessed in the studies in which older patients were recruited in this thesis. The presence and the associations between systemic inflammation and clinical characteristics were assessed in OAD. In addition, the longitudinal changes in clinical outcomes among these different phenotypes of OAD were compared and linked to systemic inflammation. I also examined the association between airway inflammation and systemic inflammation linking to future exacerbation risk and sought to investigate the mechanisms behind the clinical relevance of systemic inflammation in COPD. The findings of this thesis have extended our knowledge of the inflammatory mechanisms of OAD. Systemic inflammation and airway inflammation are both important features of OAD and relate to clinical prognosis in terms of exacerbation risk. These are important observations that revealed novel inflammatory mechanisms of OAD and have significant clinical implications. Targeting specific inflammatory pathways might provide novel therapeutic strategies for OAD.
- Subject
- systemic inflammation; obstructive airway disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; immune dysfunction
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1050186
- Identifier
- uon:15127
- Rights
- Copyright 2014 Juan-juan Fu
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 7 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |