Do "corona discharge" devices alleviate asthma?

[mezmeriseu]

This pertains to an answer by Cecil on September 10, 1999. In the answer as to whether corona dischsrge devices alleviate asthma: As part of my graduate studies at the Australian National University in 1981 and 1982, I conducted a double blind cross-over study of 20 patients (ultimately 19 since one withdrew during the lead-in period) who were asthma sufferers. The trial was conducted over 14 weeks, during which time the patients were alternately supplied with a real ionizer (4 weeks) and a disguised but inoperative ionizer (4 weeks). Leading in, they self monitored their condition for a period of 2 weeks and between ionizers they had a “wash-out” period of 2 weeks, and at the end, another 2 week washout period. Throughout, the patients monitored their own condition using a diary card, recording PEFR, medication and some subjective information. The physicians involved in the trial were not aware of the condition of the ionizers at any stage throughout the trial. The results, which were only published internally in my thesis, showed a statistically significant 5 % improvement in the condition of the patients as determined by their PEFR (Peak Expiratory Flow Rate) during the period that they had the real ionizer. I can’t blame Cecil for not being aware of this. In fact the physicians involved did publish a paper in the Lancet in which they claimed that there was no statistically significant change in the patient’s condition, however they did not point to the obvious variations in the patient performances as indicated in the raw data. Anyway, I guess this just represents one person’s opinion (I am not asthmatic, nor am I in any way associated with air ionizers). My thesis was accepted by the ANU Physics department, including the conclusions therein, which contradicted the findings published in the Lancet by the physicians. I refused to be a co-author in that paper, as did my supervisor.

[TubaDiva]

A link to the column cited is always helpful.

Do "corona discharge" devices alleviate asthma?

[Irishman]

Thanks for your observations.

I have to wonder how beneficial a 5% improvement really is. shrug

The column cites a study from 1993 (“Werner et al”). How does that study relate to the one you did?

From the column:

Nobody knows what the “HEPA” in “HEPA filter” stands for. Writers in the scientific journals almost universally believe HEPA stands for “high efficiency particulate air,” whatever that is. Consumer Reports, however, says HEPA stands for “high efficiency particulate absorbing.” I vote for CR.

You vote? How does one vote for a defined term? Why does “high efficiency particulate air” not seem to make sense? Because you are ingoring the last part - filter. The thing is a HEPA filter, not a HEPA. Read it correctly: High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter.

High Efficiency - it does a really good job.
Particulate - it removes particulate, not fluids or gases or ions, etc.
Air - it cleans air, as it flows
filter - the noun in the statement

As for the listening test one:

Dichotic listening

In dichotic listening, two different auditory stimuli (usually speech) are presented to the participant simultaneously, one to each ear, normally using a set of headphones. Participants are asked to attend to one or (in a divided-attention experiment) both of the messages. They may later be asked about the content of either message.

and

Dichotic listening can also be used to test the hemispheric asymmetry of a cognitive function such as language processing. In the early 60s Doreen Kimura reported that verbal stimuli presented dichotically gave a right ear advantage (REA)[4]. This was interpreted as showing the result of the structure of the auditory nerves and the left sided dominance for language processing [5]. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Donald Shankweiler [2] and Michael Studdert-Kennedy [3] of Haskins Laboratories used a dichotic listening technique (presenting different nonsense syllables simultaneously to opposite ears) to demonstrate the dissociation of phonetic (speech) and auditory (nonspeech) perception by finding that phonetic structure devoid of meaning is an integral part of language, typically processed in the left cerebral hemisphere[6][7][8]. A dichotic listening performance advantage for one ear is interpreted as indicating a processing advantage in the contralateral hemisphere.

I can forgive Cecil not having wiki in 1999.