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Canadian researchers are reporting that children with asthma are more likely to develop severe cases of H1N1 flu than seasonal flu.

“Asthma has been identified as a significant risk factor for admission with pandemic H1N1 influenza, present in 21 percent to 30 percent in the larger samples,” wrote Dr. Upton Allen and fellow researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Their study was published online Nov. 19 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The finding stemmed from a comparison of medical data on 58 children admitted to the Toronto hospital with H1N1 flu, sometimes called swine flu, from May 8 to July 22 this year and data on 200 children who were admitted for seasonal flu from 2004 to 2009.

Of the children treated for H1N1 flu, 22 percent had asthma, but just 6 percent of those treated for seasonal flu had asthma, the study found. Also, almost half of the children admitted to the intensive care unit to be treated for H1N1 flu had asthma.

The researchers described the prevalence of asthma as “the most striking difference” between the two groups of children, but they found other differences as well. Children with H1N1 flu were older. But children with both kinds of flu spent about the same amount of time in the hospital: four days.

None of the children with H1N1 flu died; one child with seasonal flu died, the study reported.

New research may provide the foundation for future medical treatment of memory deficits associated with Down syndrome.

The research was conducted in mice that were genetically engineered to have a condition similar to Down syndrome, a genetic disorder. It is still not clear if humans would benefit from the findings.

Still, the researchers found that mice with the syndrome-like condition could use their brains more effectively when the signaling of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that helps nerve cells communicate, was boosted.

“If you intervene early enough, you will be able to help kids with Down syndrome to collect and modulate information,” Dr. Ahmad Salehi, the study’s primary author, said in a news release from Stanford University Medical Center. “Theoretically, that could lead to an improvement in cognitive functions in these kids.” Salehi, a research health science specialist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, in California, was a senior scientist at Stanford when the study was conducted.

The study found that the mice did better on cognitive tests such as nest-building — in fact, as well as normal mice — after getting drugs that boosted norepinephrine levels.

“We were very surprised to see that, wow, it worked so fast,” Salehi said. The results were published in Science Translational Medicine.

The study results give “a ray of hope and optimism for the Down syndrome community for the future,” Dr. Melanie Manning, director of the Center for Down Syndrome at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, said in the news release.

People’s genetic makeup has been shown to affect how they respond to asthma medications, but a new study finds that many people respond well to a particular combination treatment regardless of their genes.

However, the study did find a difference in response among blacks.

The drug combo in question combines the long-acting beta-agonist salmeterol (Serevent) and moderate doses of an inhaled corticosteroid. The genes in question relate to a receptor in the body that is crucial to the effectiveness of asthma bronchodilators.

Some research has suggested that a variation in these genes can affect how people respond to the drugs. The researchers tested that theory in 87 people who had two types of the genetic variation — B16 Arg/Arg or B16 Gly/Gly.

They found that lung function did not differ overall in the groups, although there was some difference in blacks. The results are reported online Nov. 19 in The Lancet.

“These findings provide reassurance that, in the general population, patients should continue to be treated with long-acting beta-agonists plus moderate-dose inhaled corticosteroids irrespective of B16 genotype,” the researchers wrote.

However, there are still questions to be answered, particularly involving blacks’ response to salmeterol, they said.

Recent reports show that the rate of preterm deliveries continues to climb in the United States. Now, a new study suggests one reason why: Many women are confused about what constitutes a full-term birth in the first place.

About one-quarter of new mothers surveyed in the study considered a baby born at 34 to 36 weeks of gestation to be full term, while slightly more than half of women considered 37 to 38 weeks full term.

Though technically speaking, preterm births are babies born prior to 37 weeks, 39 to 40 weeks is optimal, according to the researchers.

Many women interviewed were also unaware that babies born even a little bit premature are at a higher risk of serious health problems compared to babies born at term, the new survey shows.

Misconceptions about what constitutes full gestation and how soon it’s safe to schedule an elective induction or cesarean delivery are contributing to increasing numbers of premature births in the United States, said lead study author Dr. Robert L. Goldenberg, professor of obstetrics and director of research at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

“Clearly, the preterm birth rate is going up, as are early deliveries that are at term but are 37 and 38 weeks,” Goldenberg said. “The data is becoming more and more clear that the outcomes of births at those earlier gestational ages are not as good as babies that are born at 39 or 40 weeks.”

The study, which included 650 first-time mothers ages 21 to 45 from around the nation who had health insurance, is in the December issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

When asked, “What is the earliest point in pregnancy that it is safe to deliver the baby, should there not be other medical complications requiring early delivery?”, more than half chose 34 to 36 weeks, 41 percent chose 37 to 38 weeks and less than 8 percent chose 39 to 40 weeks.

However, experts warn that any delivery short of 39 weeks puts a baby at higher risk of respiratory distress, sepsis (blood infection) and needing to be placed in the neonatal intensive care unit, according to background information in the study. Only one-quarter of new moms realized 39 to 40 weeks was safest.

Premature births are a growing problem in the United States. In fact, the percentage of babies born preterm rose by more than 20 percent from 1990 to 2006, according to a report released in November by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

Technically, the World Health Organization and other major medical organizations define preterm births as babies born before 37 weeks. But that definition was developed some 50 years ago and is outdated, said Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director for the March of Dimes.

More recently, studies have shown that babies born even a bit too early — at 37 or 38 weeks — have a greater chance of chronic respiratory disease and learning disorders than children born at 39 weeks or later.

Babies born between 34 and 37 weeks are six times more likely to die during their first week or life and three times more likely to die during their first year than babies born at 39 or 40 weeks, Fleishman added.

“Everybody knows a baby who has been born a bit early who has done pretty well,” Fleischman said. “But what we’ve learned is that, going backwards, there is increasing mortality and morbidity for every week prior to 39 weeks of gestation.”

Many experts now refer to babies born between 34 and 36 weeks as “late preterm,” while babies born at 37 and 38 weeks are “early term.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the March of Dimes recommend against elective inductions or C-sections prior to 39 weeks.

In many situations, there is probably some medical reason for choosing to deliver early — perhaps the mother has slightly elevated blood pressure, for example, Goldenberg said.

“I call them semi-electives,” Goldenberg said. “I believe over the last 15 or 20 years, the practice is evolving to deliver those babies earlier and earlier when there is no evidence of benefits.”

TV shows and news reports about very premature babies that survive may also be fueling misconceptions, Goldenberg said. Some women are left with the impression that if babies born before 30 weeks can survive, infants that are just a little bit premature should have no problems.

“Because the shows don’t emphasize the bad outcomes at those ages, it’s led not only women but doctors to conclude that by the time you get up to 34, 35 or 36 weeks, everything is fine,” Goldenberg said. “But the recent research is showing it’s not fine.”

The last few weeks of gestation are critical to fetal development. All of the organs continue to mature in preparation for moving from the womb to the outside world, Fleischman explained. Between 35 and 40 weeks, the fetal brain grows by about 50 percent.

Educating expectant mothers and their physicians about the risk of preterm births may help women to make more informed decisions about when to schedule elective inductions and C-sections, Goldenberg said. That includes setting up hospital policies that discourage elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks and enforcing it through peer review to help curb the practice.