Good Respiratory news from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed his final bills into law on Monday, 30 December 2013, one day before his last in office. Bloomberg will sign a bill that lumps e-cigarettes into the Smoke Free Air Act, meaning the devices are banned everywhere smoking is banned.

Michael Bloomberg is a world known leader with active anti-smoking position!

"Tobacco is the only product I know where if you follow the instructions, it'll kill you," he said. "The need for action transcends all borders. If we fail, the consequences will be one billion premature deaths worldwide by the end of the 21st century."

Happy New Respiratory Year 2014!!!

Happy New Respiratory Year 2014!!!
Take a deep breath with us in 2014!!!
 

Merry Christmas to all Respiratory

Merry Christmas to all Respiratory friends!!!

Thank you for all your permanent help and support in this hard year! We realized very useful things for promotion of ALL Respiratory conditions! We are hoping that we will continue this work with your help and in 2014!

 

Our lungs are in your hands

Strasbourg, 10 December 2013: At the morning a five meter big, inflatable lung was stationed in front of the entrance of the European Parliament accompanied by a banner saying “Our lungs are in your hands”. The action was organized by the European Environment Bureau, the “Soot free for the climate” - campaign and the “Clean Air”-project.

During the 2013 European “Year of Air”, the European Commission committed to launch a package of new measures aimed at improving air quality. The European “Year of Air” was officially closed at 10 December 2013 at a conference hosted by the Commissioner for the Environment in Strasbourg but still we haven’t seen a sign of the new package whose adoption was delayed week after week. Therefore Members of the European Parliament in cooperation with NGOs started an action asking for the Commission to propose its package to the European Parliament as soon as possible and to make sure that it will be ambitious enough.  

Writers Sleep Habits and Literary Productivity

Today we are happy to share with you infographic on Writers Sleep Habits and Literary Productivity!

“In both writing and sleeping,” Stephen King observed in his excellent meditation on the art of “creative sleep” and wakeful dreaming, “we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.”

Lung Health in Europe in 21 Century: COPD

The European Lung Foundation and the European Respiratory Society have launched a short version of the European Lung White Book, centred around a series of infographics focusing on the key statistics on epidemiology and burden of Respiratory diseases in Europe.

The book, which was launched in Brussels this week, is aimed at policymakers, the public and patients who are looking to quickly and updated access the information on the Respiratory health in Europe.

Today we are happy to present you infographics on COPD from European Lung White Book. 

What Happens When A Smoker Quits

Dear Respiratory friends we are happy to present info graphic: What Happens When A Smoker Quits!

 

World COPD Day 2013: one more chance to make some noise for COPD

The early stages of COPD are often unrecognized, in part because many individuals discount symptoms such as breathlessness, chronic cough, and bringing up phlegm as a normal part of getting older or an expected consequence of cigarette smoking.

 

World COPD Day in Moldova!

 

“Better awareness of COPD symptoms like chronic cough and breathlessness is key to improving early diagnosis,” says Dr. Marc Decramer, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). GOLD is the organizer of World COPD Day.

 

World COPD Day in Moldova!

COPD is diagnosed using a breathing test called spirometry. This test, which is painless and takes only a few minutes, measures the amount of air a person can breathe out, and the amount of time taken to do so. Researchers are also studying additional ways to identify COPD earlier in the course of disease.

There is no cure for COPD, which may also contribute to underdiagnosis of the disease. People whose breathlessness is more severe may find the possibility of finding out that they have COPD frightening, and avoid seeking treatment. “COPD treatment is most effective when begun early in the course of the disease,” says Dr. Jorgen Vestbo, Vice-Chair of the GOLD Board of Directors. “However, at all stages of disease, treatments are available that reduce symptoms such as breathlessness and enable people to participate more fully in daily life.” Furthermore, new medications hold the promise of treating COPD more effectively and with fewer side effects. Scientists are also studying disease markers that in the future may enable them to predict when a person’s COPD symptoms will get worse. “In order to reduce the burden of COPD, we have to identify more of the people who have it,” says Dr. Vestbo.

COPD occurs most often in patients who are over age 40 and who have a history of exposure to COPD risk factors. Worldwide, the most commonly encountered risk factor for COPD is cigarette smoking.  Other important risk factors include dusts and chemicals encountered on the job and smoke from biomass fuels (such as coal, wood, and animal dung) burned for cooking and heating in poorly ventilated dwellings, especially in developing countries.

Patients may be able to slow or even stop the progress of COPD by reducing their exposure to risk factors for the disease. Without treatment, however, COPD is generally a progressive disease, and as the disease gets worse patients become breathless during everyday activities such as climbing a flight of stairs, walking the dog, or even getting washed and dressed in the morning.

World COPD Day was first held in 2002, and has grown each year to become one of the most important COPD events globally. On World COPD Day, dozens of awareness-raising activities for health care professionals, COPD patients, the general public, and the media will take place in countries all over the world.

World COPD Day 2013: 2 days left!!!

Dear Respiratory Friends,

We will celebrate World COPD Day 2013 on 20 November!

This is very good chance to make visible this Respiratory Condition and to increase awareness for COPD at the global level!

Support us and Stop COPD with Respiratory Decade! Thank you!
We are sharing with you great video from 2010 dedicated to World COPD Day!

Use COPD GOLD Ribbon on World COPD Day 2013!!!

Use COPD GOLD Ribbon this month for helping us to spread the word and increase awareness for COPD!!! We are continuing COPD awareness Day campaign and also COPD month! Stop smoking and Stop COPD!!!

 

World COPD Day 2013 is under corner

Dear Respiratory friends World COPD Day 2013 is under corner!!! Join our Social Media event: World COPD Day 2013 on Respiratory Decade!!

or direct link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/231327290364322/

Efforts to improve early diagnosis, develop new treatments, and better predict patients’ prognoses are leading to renewed optimism in the fight against one of the world’s most prevalent respiratory diseases.

The illness, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is a non-communicable lung disease that progressively robs sufferers of breath. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, causing more than 3 million deaths every year, and up to half of people with the disease don’t know they have it.

20 November 2013 is the twelfth annual World COPD Day, an event held each November to raise awareness of COPD worldwide. This year’s World COPD Day theme, “It’s not too late,” emphasizes the meaningful actions people can take to improve their respiratory health, at any stage before or after a COPD diagnosis.

30th anniversary of the first successful single-lung transplant

Dear Respiratory friends we are congratulating everybody with wonderful anniversary of the first successful lung transplant!!!

Last year alone, 1,754 lung transplants were performed throughout the U.S., according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Yet not long ago, lung transplantation was regarded as one of thoracic surgery's great unsolved challenges. "It was thought that the bronchus might just be the Achilles' heel of transplantation, and it just was an insoluble problem," says Joel D. Cooper, MD, 74, from his office at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Monica Assenheimer (from left), the second single-lung recipient, Tom Hall, the world’s first single-lung recipient, and Ann Harrison, the world’s first double-lung recipient. The University of Toronto will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first successful lung transplant and honor Dr. Cooper at a ceremony Nov. 6.
Photo Courtesy of University of Toronto’s Living History project, livinghistory.med.utoronto.ca.

After participating in the 44th failed attempt in the late 1970s, Dr. Cooper retreated to his lab at University of Toronto. With the support of his colleagues and a number of research fellows from around the world, they conducted a series of wound-healing experiments in dogs that uncovered the culprit: high doses of the immunosuppressant drug prednisone interfered with the healing process. Using omentum and cyclosporin (both experimental at the time), Dr. Cooper and his team completed the first successful lung transplant in 1983 on a 58-year-old Canadian hardware executive and pulmonary fibrosis patient Tom Hall, and the procedure was reproducible.

"When everybody failed, Joel never gave up on making the dream of lung transplantation a reality," says Shaf Keshavjee, MD, surgeon in chief at (Toronto) University Heath Network and director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, which Dr. Cooper initiated. "Thousands of lung patients are alive because of Joel's contributions."

November marks the 30th anniversary of the first successful single-lung transplant, but it's hardly Dr. Cooper's only contribution to thoracic surgery and medicine. Dr. Cooper, a professor of surgery at Penn and an ATS member since 1976, directed the first successful double-lung transplants in 1986 and 1987, and later the bilateral, sequential, single-lung transplantation procedure to treat cystic fibrosis, emphysema and pulmonary hypertension.

When asked how he felt about his legacy of solving a great thoracic mystery, Dr. Cooper humbly answers, "We put the icing on the cake that other people had spent years and years baking. I think it was Isaac Newton coined the aphorism, 'if we see further, it's because we stand on the shoulders of giants.' Nothing, I think, typifies that more than the transplant."

TWINS WHO SMOKE LOOK OLDER

Dear Respiratory friends we are presenting new evidence about effect of smoking!!!
Twins who smoke show more premature facial aging, compared to their non-smoking identical twins, reports a study in the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

It is well-known that smoking is bad for you, but do you know how it affects the way you look?

Smoking causes dry skin and increases the chances of facial wrinkling. It depletes the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients.

Take a look at the pictures of these different pairs of twins and try and guess who is the smoker without looking at the captions!

The study finds significant differences in facial aging between twins with as little as five years' difference in smoking history, says a new report by ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Bahman Guyuron, Professor and Chairman, Department of Plastic Surgery, University Hospital Case Medical and Case School of Medicine, Cleveland. The results also suggest that the effects of smoking on facial aging are most apparent in the lower two-thirds of the face.

European Smoking Cessation Guidelines 2013

Dear Respiratory friends we are happy to present new Smoking Cessation Guidelines!

The European Smoking Cessation Guidelines and Quality Standards are the main output of a project undertaken by ENSP to create a coherent and reliable set of guidelines for healthcare professionals working in the field of smoking cessation. The Guidelines form a complete range of tools to support smoking cessation strategies. The work was undertaken by the Editorial Board comprising seven eminent professors and the Board of Revisers from across the entire European continent and is the first of its kind. These guidelines are in accordance with Article 14 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which states that:

Parties should develop and disseminate comprehensive tobacco dependence treatment guidelines based on the best available scientific evidence and best practices, taking into account national circumstances and priorities. These guidelines should include two major components: (1) a national cessation strategy, to promote tobacco cessation and provide tobacco dependence treatment, aimed principally at those responsible for funding and implementing policies and programs; and (2) national treatment guidelines aimed principally at those who will develop, manage and provide cessation support to tobacco users.

This project aims to support smoking cessation activities and strengthen their impact by:

• providing health professionals with a European template of smoking cessation guidelines and best practice;
• providing the tobacco control community with tools for monitoring and accreditation.

Five Things Chest Physicians and Respiratory Patients Should Question

Dear Respiratory friends we are re-posting interesting questions and answers from American College of Chest Physicians and American Thoracic Society!

1

Don’t perform computed tomography (CT) surveillance for evaluation of indeterminate pulmonary nodules at more frequent intervals or for a longer period of time than recommended by established guidelines.

Clinical practice guidelines for pulmonary nodule evaluation (such as those issued by the Fleischner Society or the American College of Chest Physicians) suggest that intensity of surveillance should be guided by the likelihood of malignancy. In patients with no prior history of cancer, solid nodules that have not grown over a 2-year period have an extremely low risk of malignancy (although longer follow-up is suggested for ground-glass nodules). Similarly, intensive surveillance (e.g., repeating CT scans every 3 months for 2 years or more) has not been shown to improve outcomes such as lung cancer mortality. Meanwhile, extended or intensive surveillance exposes patients to increased radiation and prolonged uncertainty.

2

Don’t routinely offer pharmacologic treatment with advanced vasoactive agents approved only for the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension to patients with pulmonary hypertension resulting from left heart disease or hypoxemic lung diseases (Groups II or III pulmonary hypertension).

Evidence and clinical practice guidelines have not established benefits of vasoactive agents (e.g., prostanoids, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, endothelin antagonists) for patients with pulmonary hypertension resulting from left heart disease or hypoxemic lung diseases. Moreover, the use of these agents may cause harm in certain situations and incurs substantial cost and resource utilization. Patients should be carefully assessed (including at a minimum right heart catheterization, echocardiography, chest CT, six minute walk test and pulmonary function testing) to confirm that they have symptomatic pulmonary arterial hypertension prior to having approved agents initiated.

3

For patients recently discharged on supplemental home oxygen following hospitalization for an acute illness, don’t renew the prescription without assessing the patient for ongoing hypoxemia.

Hypoxemia often resolves after recovery from an acute illness, and continued prescription of supplemental oxygen therapy incurs unnecessary cost and resource use. At the time that supplemental oxygen is initially prescribed, a plan should be established to re-assess the patient no later than 90 days after discharge. Medicare and evidence-based criteria should be followed to determine whether the patient meets criteria for supplemental oxygen.

4

Don’t perform chest computed tomography (CT angiography) to evaluate for possible pulmonary embolism in patients with a low clinical probability and negative results of a highly sensitive D-dimer assay.

Clinical practice guidelines for pulmonary embolism indicate that the cost and potential harms of CT angiography (including radiation exposure and the possibility of detecting and treating clinically insignificant pulmonary emboli with anticoagulation) outweigh the benefits for patients with a low pre-test probability of pulmonary embolism. In patients with a low clinical prediction score (e.g., Wells or Geneva score) followed by a negative D-dimer measured with a high sensitivity test (e.g., ELISA), pulmonary embolism is effectively excluded and no further imaging is indicated for pulmonary embolism evaluation.

5

Don’t perform CT screening for lung cancer among patients at low risk for lung cancer.

Low dose chest CT screening for lung cancer has the potential to reduce lung cancer death in patients at high risk (i.e., individuals aged 55-74 with at least a 30-pack year history of tobacco use, who are either still smoking or quit within the past 15 years). However, CT screening for lung cancer also has the potential to cause a number of adverse effects (e.g., radiation exposure, high false positive rate, harms related to downstream evaluation of pulmonary nodules, overdiagnosis of indolent tumors). Thus, screening should be reserved for patients at high risk of lung cancer and should not be offered to individuals at low risk of lung cancer.

Master Studies in Interventional Pneumology at Firenze, Italy, 2014

Dear Respiratory Doctors,

We are happy to invite you in 2014 at Firenze, Italy for Master Studies in Interventional Pneumology, which is organized by great friend of Respiratory Decade Professor Lorenzo CORBETTA.
Please find links with program of Master Studies!

Cari Colleghi,
sono aperte le iscrizioni alla 5° edizione del Master di II livello in Pneumologia Interventistica, A.A. 2013-2014 collegandosi on-line al sito: http://ammissioni.polobiotec.unifi.it/turul. Le iscrizioni chiuderanno alle ore 13 del 15 Gennaio 2014. Per informazioni sui contenuti del Master potete collegarvi al sito http://master.pneumologia-interventistica.it o visualizzare il video informativo al seguente indirizzo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x0MsBfbEcY.

Il Master che avrà inizio il 25 Febbraio 2014 avrà un durata di 10 mesi.
La sede del Master è provvista di 3 manichini permanenti e di un simulatore per le prove pratiche. L'obiettivo principale è quello di fornire un valido aggiornamento nel settore della broncoscopia diagnostica e operativa, della toracoscopia e della gestione delle vie aeree artificiali e si avvale sia di metodologie didattiche tradizionali di tipo frontale o seminariale sia di metodologie innovative che prevedono l'uso di manichini, simulatori, collegamenti in "real time" con le sale endoscopiche, sessioni di e-learning e videoconferenze.
Il Master prevede, inoltre, uno stage formativo della durata di 3 settimane in uno dei Centri italiani di Pneumologia convenzionati.

L'insegnamento, affidato a docenti dell'Ateneo fiorentino e dei principali Centri italiani di Pneumologia Interventistica, è diretto principalmente a medici Specialisti in Malattie dell'Apparato Respiratorio e ad altri Specialisti che hanno interesse ad acquisire professionalità in questo settore.
Per ulteriori informazioni: Segreteria master polo biomedico
Tel: 055 4598 031-769-775-773
Fax: 055 7946699 master@polobiomedico.unifi.it

Segreteria organizzativa:
Tel: 055 4271462
Fax: 055 4271464 segreteria.master@pneumologia-interventistica.it

Ufficio supporto organizzativo:
Mob: +39 331 5664435
Tel: +39 0532 974077 mailto:margherita.franzoni@unife.it convegni@unife.it

COMITATO ORDINATORE:
Lorenzo Corbetta
Raffaele De Gaudio
Stefano Gasparin
Carlo Mereu
Marco Patelli
Massimo Pistolesi

Sito Web: http://master.pneumologia-interventistica.it