The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG), is proud to host the 8th IPCRG Scientific Meeting in Brașov, Romania, on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 April 2025. This event, in partnership with the RespiRO team and the Transilvania University of Brașov promises to bring together researchers, innovators, and industry leaders to advance respiratory care in primary health settings.
Early identification of COPD is crucial for optimal symptom control, disease progression, and outcomes, but identifying individuals at risk of progressing from early to severe disease remains challenging. Proposed criteria for diagnosing early COPD include a smoking history of over 10 pack-years and specific clinical or imaging findings, though these are debated. Despite differing opinions on the necessity of early detection, many health authorities support primary care clinicians in identifying at-risk individuals to improve outcomes.
Education, Conference Coverage and Articles
Welcome to the latest edition of touchREVIEWS in Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases. As we continually strive to deliver cutting-edge research and insightful commentary, this issue is no exception, featuring a diverse array of articles that illuminate both emerging treatments and ...
Approximately half of all smokers will develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with a disease progression over several years before the spirometric threshold for diagnosis is reached.1 There is, therefore, a clear benefit in identifying patients with COPD as early ...
The nasal airway serves as the primary entry point of air and oxygen into the body. It serves critical functions, such as providing a physical barrier against external irritants and pathogens and warming and humidifying incoming air.1 Consequently, disorders of ...
Pentraxin-2 is a member of the pentraxin family of proteins, which includes C-reactive protein (CRP), pentraxin-2 and pentraxin-3.1–3 When initially discovered and characterized, pentraxin-2 was known as serum amyloid P (SAP) due to its isolation from amyloid deposits in humans; ...
Leading experts discuss the role of different inflammatory pathways in COPD disease progression.
Watch a short video presentation on the diagnosis and assessment of COPD according to the 2024 GOLD report, focusing on clinical features and assessment goals. Then join leading experts as they discuss the latest advances in understanding COPD, originally presented by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in two symposia at ERS 2023 and GOLD 2023.
Share your knowledge, influence clinical practices and enhance patient care in Respiratory today!
Paediatric sleep-disordered breathing Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is defined as the disruption of normal respiration and ventilation while asleep.1 SDB encompasses multiple sleep disturbances, ranging from mild snoring to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).1,2 OSA is characterized by episodic partial or complete ...
Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by inflammation and/or fibrosis.1 Pulmonary fibrosis develops due to repeated cycles of injury and impaired repair with fibroblast activation and migration with the resultant deposition of extracellular matrix ...
Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are the dominant cause of the worsening and high mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and are associated with higher healthcare costs as part of COPD management. AECOPD is characterized by ...
Lung cancer accounts for the highest cancer-related mortality and is the second most common cause of malignancy worldwide.1 Diagnosis at an early stage (ES) has a direct effect on management and survival rates. Overall, the 5-year survival rate from 2013 to 2019 ...
The topic of the carbon footprint of human activities is one frequently discussed worldwide. There have been conscious efforts across multiple fields, including healthcare, to reduce their carbon footprint. In Canada, 4.6% of greenhouse gases (GHG) are manufactured by the healthcare ...
Chronic cough is a cough that lasts 8 weeks or longer and is not due to serious underlying conditions. It is a common problem in primary care, accounting for up to 40% of referrals to pulmonologists.1 Common causes include rhinosinusitis, cough-variant asthma, ...
Asthma is a heterogeneous disease with notable variation in its clinical course and response to treatment. Despite management with standard-of-care therapies, a proportion of patients remain uncontrolled and at risk of life-threatening exacerbations and disease worsening. Advances in understanding the ...
Welcome to the latest issue of touchREVIEWS in Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases, in which we bring you a range of topical and timely articles in the field of lung diseases. In this issue, we begin with an expert interview about ...
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic sinus disease that affects between 5% and 12% of the general population.1–3 Despite substantially impacting the patient's quality of life, it often remains underdiagnosed and undertreated.1 The European Forum for Research and Education in Allergy and ...
For over four decades, polls in the USA have demonstrated that nearly 70% of smokers want to quit and 55% of smokers have attempted to quit in the past year.1 Over these decades, despite advances in medications and behavioural treatments, less than 10% ...
The natural progression of neuromuscular disease (NMD) inevitably involves respiratory system failure. Increasing respiratory muscle weakness causes worsening hypoventilation, leading to hypercapnia and, eventually, hypoxemia. The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) recently published guidelines on the respiratory management of ...
Chronic cough, defined as a cough lasting over 8 weeks, has an estimated global prevalence of 10% and has significant detrimental physical, social and psychological consequences on individuals.1,2 Chronic cough is a complex heterogeneous disease, in which many causative factors need to ...
Introducing the Editorial Board of touchREVIEWS in Respiratory, who support our mission to advance medical knowledge and practice by ensuring the integrity, relevance, and impact of the content we publish. Together, we strive to foster a vibrant academic community and contribute to the continuous improvement of healthcare worldwide.
Asthma
Consultant Pulmonologist at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, and Deputy Head of the Division of Pulmonology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
Professor Richard van Zyl-Smit is a consultant pulmonologist at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, and Deputy Head of the Division of Pulmonology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a principal researcher at the University of Cape Town Lung Institute and is President Elect of the South African Thoracic Society. His major clinical and research interests are airway diseases, specifically: asthma and COPD with a focus on tobacco, household air pollution, electronic cigarettes, and their impact on pulmonary immune responses (to pneumococcal and mycobacterial infection) and the development of COPD. He has over 80 peer reviewed publications and he has additionally been involved in industry sponsored research for over 13 years across a spectrum of pulmonary disorders. He serves on the American Thoracic Society International Health Committee and is passionate about teaching, training, sustainability and mental health in health care. He is the South African representative on the GOLD assembly and a GINA global ambassador. After qualifying as a pulmonologist, he completed a basic science PhD investigating the effects of tobacco smoke and nicotine on human pulmonary defence mechanisms to tuberculosis infection.
Pulmonary and sleep medicine
Chief, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; Medical Director, Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center; Professor of Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell Department of Medicine, New Hyde Park, NY, USA
Dr Harly Greenberg is Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Northwell Health in New York and Associate Director of the Northwell Health Lung Institute, Medical Director of the Northwell Sleep Disorders Center and Professor of Medicine Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell.
Dr Harly Greenberg is a recognized expert in sleep medicine and has helped to advance the field of sleep medicine as an investigator or co-investigator in multiple clinical research trials. His research has contributed to our understanding of the cardiovascular consequences of obstructive sleep apnea. In addition, Dr. Greenberg was a co-investigator in a major international clinical trial that established the efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure therapy as an important treatment for patients with milder forms of obstructive sleep apnea. His work has also contributed to the development of new therapies for sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. He is also a co-investigator on a research protocol on central neural correlates of respiratory sensation and dyspnea, funded by NHLBI.
COPD
Honorary Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy
Mario Cazzola is Honorary Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy. He founded Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Diseases and served as the Editor-in-Chief for Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and for COPD – Research and Practice. He is Deputy Editor for Respiratory Medicine, Section Editor for Frontiers in Drug Safety and Regulation, and an Associate Editor for Respiratory Research, Current Research in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery, Clinical Investigation, and The Open Respiratory Medicine Journal, and an Editor for British Journal of Pharmacology. He is the author or co-author of almost 754 scientific papers. His H-index is 74. According to Expertscape (November 2022), he is the top-rated expert in COPD, obstructive lung diseases and bronchodilator agents worldwide. He was the Chairman of the Airway Pharmacology and Treatment Group and Co-chairman of the ERS/ATS Task Force “Outcomes for COPD pharmacological trials: from lung function to biomarkers”. He has received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the same scientific society. He was a member of the steering committee of the Airway Disorders Network and served as Governor of the Italian Chapter at the American College Chest Physicians.
He is the Chairman of the Southern Europe Chapter at Interasma, and the Chair of the Med COPD Forum. His research has mainly been focused on the pharmacology of airway diseases, particularly the use of bronchodilators and obstructive lung diseases.
Asthma
Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Sir Peter Barnes FMedSci, FRS is Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and was Head of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College London 1987-2017. He qualified at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and trained in London. He has published >1500 peer-review papers on asthma, COPD (h-index 230) and has written/edited >50 books. He has been the most highly cited respiratory researcher in the world over the last 20 years. He was President of the ERS in 2013/2014 and was knighted for services to respiratory science in 2023.
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