The report involved results of a 2-year retrospective study involving close to 1,900 elderly patients with chronic lung disease. About two-thirds of the patients had been vaccinated against pneumonia. The study examined 201 patients who had a cough for 2 to 12 weeks and no pulmonary disease and 164 age-matched healthy controls with no history of cough in the prior 12 weeks. The mean IgG titer to B. pertussis toxin was significantly significantly higher in the patients positive for B. pertussis DNA than in the control patients. It was concluded that B. pertussis infection is a common cause of persistent cough in adult and that treating physicians should be aware of the impact of B. pertussis on coughing in adults, regardless of history of cough.
Full publications are under preparation.
Observations about eating habits and lifestyle were made over a 14-year period. At the baseline visit, the women were 34 to 59 years old and free of heart disease. About half of these events occurred in current smokers. Patients had averaged 60 episodes of angina per week prior to therapy which was reduced to less than three episodes per week, on average, at 12-months. Nuclear stress testing and other imaging modalities showed a consistent, improvement with defects largely eliminated.