GINA 2015: the latest iteration of a magnificent journey

Dear Friends we are happy to present you fresh analysis of The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Guidelines 2015.

The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) represents a remarkable source document that has changed the course of asthma in most countries. The first asthma guidelines have been published in Australasia, UK and the USA. Canadian and French recommendations proposed the concept of control, and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Expert Panel Report initiated the concept of risk for asthma. 

However, GINA is globally considered to be the prominent asthma recommendation building on existing knowledge and providing several updates or revisions since it was introduced in 1995. GINA 2015 represents a significant advance over the previous iteration, with a more practical approach and an increased appreciation of asthma as a public health problem. Due to the expected impact of GINA 2015 it is mandatory to assess strengths and weaknesses although many of these cannot be ruled out due to the lack of information currently available.

Free full text: http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/3/579?ctkey=ERJtw108415

Global Ethics Survey 2015

Dear Friends,

Please support Global Ethics survey 2015 conducted by Professor Joseph Varon from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA!

To all our colleagues in healthcare: We need YOU!
Please help us complete this Global Ethics survey to better understand the impact of religion, communication and end of life issues. 

Your answers are STRICTLY confidential and there are no identifiers. The survey is available in 12 languages. 

Important: We are NOT collecting any email addresses, offering any product or services or marketing campaigns. Pure research. 100%
Thank you!

Direct link:

http://www.sanamedcme.com/ethics-survey-2015.html

What might snoring hide?

Dear Friends,

we are happy tor present you our article What might snoring hide? published in Moldova Journal of Health Sciences!

Link for Free download:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282647718_What_might_snoring_hide

Evolving Concepts of Asthma in 2015

Dear Friends, in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine appeared new article on concepts of asthma!
Our understanding of asthma has evolved over time from a singular disease to a complex of various phenotypes, with varied natural histories, physiologies, and responses to treatment. Early therapies treated most patients with asthma similarly, with bronchodilators and corticosteroids, but these therapies had varying degrees of success. Similarly, despite initial studies that identified an underlying type 2 inflammation in the airways of patients with asthma, biologic therapies targeted toward these type 2 pathways were unsuccessful in all patients. These observations led to increased interest in phenotyping asthma. Clinical approaches, both biased and later unbiased/statistical approaches to large asthma patient cohorts, identified a variety of patient characteristics, but they also consistently identified the importance of age of onset of disease and the presence of eosinophils in determining clinically relevant phenotypes. These paralleled molecular approaches to phenotyping that developed an understanding that not all patients share a type 2 inflammatory pattern. Using biomarkers to select patients with type 2 inflammation, repeated trials of biologics directed toward type 2 cytokine pathways saw newfound success, confirming the importance of phenotyping in asthma. Further research is needed to clarify additional clinical and molecular phenotypes, validate predictive biomarkers, and identify new areas for possible interventions.

Read more: 
http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.201504-0763PP#.VhKqFitqqUl

Pneumonology Quiz - Case 1: Unilateral Hypertranslucent Hemithorax

Dear Respiratory Friends, we are happy tor present you our publication in Archives of Hellenic Medicine: Pneumonology Quiz - Case 1: Unilateral Hypertranslucent Hemithorax!

Link for free download: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282441538_Pneumonology_Quiz_-_Case_1_Unilateral_Hypertranslucent_Hemithorax

Treatment of Unexplained Chronic Cough: CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report

Dear friends Chest just published new Guidelines on Unexplained chronic cough!
Background:  Unexplained chronic cough (UCC) causes significant quality of life impairment. There is a need to identify effective assessment and treatment approaches for UCC.

Methods:  This systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials asked: What is the efficacy of treatment compared to usual care on cough severity, cough frequency, and cough-related quality of life in patients with unexplained chronic cough (UCC)? Studies of adults and adolescents >12 years with a chronic cough of >8 weeks duration that was unexplained after systematic investigation and treatment were included and assessed for relevance and quality. Based upon the systematic review, guideline suggestions were developed and voted upon using CHEST organization methodology.
Results:  11 RCTs and 5 systematic reviews were included. The 11 RCTs reported data on 570 participants with chronic cough who received a variety of interventions. Study quality was high in 10 RCTs. The studies used a variety of descriptors and assessments to identify unexplained chronic cough. While gabapentin and morphine showed positive effects on cough-related quality of life, only gabapentin was supported as a treatment recommendation. Studies of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) suffered from intervention fidelity bias, and when this was addressed, ICS were not found to be effective for UCC. Esomeprazole was not effective for UCC without features of gastroesophageal acid reflux. Studies addressing non-acid gastroesophageal reflux were not identified. A multimodality speech pathology intervention improved cough severity.
Conclusions:  The evidence supporting the diagnosis and management of UCC is limited. UCC requires further study to establish agreed terminology and the optimal methods of investigation using established criteria for intervention fidelity. Speech pathology based cough suppression is suggested as a treatment option for UCC. This guideline presents suggestions for diagnosis and treatment based on the best available evidence and identifies gaps in our knowledge and areas for future research.
Full text:
http://journal.publications.chestnet.org/article.aspx?articleid=2451211&utm_content=buffer6c4ce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Respiratory Decade versus Decade of Lung

Dear Friends,

I am wondering if you have seen the launch of the Decade of the Lung 2015-2026 on European Respiratory Congress on 28 September 2015…

It sounds like an imitation of what we are doing since 2010 (!), when we decided to create the Respiratory Decade 2011-2020 as a continuation of Year of the Lung, an extremely successful campaign launched by Professor N. Siafakas.

Probably the PR agency which is paid by The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) has run out of ideas and experiences a deep creativity crisis, otherwise I cannot understand how it is possible to use even the same words for the campaign promotion.

We must stress that the Respiratory Decade is a non-commercial initiative and our platform is followed and read by hundreds of people for almost 5 years.
Please share on your walls!