Welcome to the latest edition of European Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases. The past decade has
seen numerous advances in the field of respiratory care, and yet respiratory disease remains a
leading cause of death and disability worldwide. This edition features a number of topical articles,
which illustrate the progress and challenges in this active area of clinical research, and invites discussion around
these issues.
In order to minimise the public health impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is a
need to improve its management. In an expert interview, Mario Cazzola discusses the key changes in the
recently updated guidelines of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). In an editorial,
McNicholas describes the often-overlooked overlap syndrome of COPD and obstructive sleep apnoea, and
discusses optimal strategies for its management. Sleep is a vulnerable period for people with all forms of
respiratory disease. In another editorial, Ersu discusses the need for sleep evaluation in children with chronic
lung disease to optimise their care.
Smoking cessation is the one of the most important ways to improve the prognosis of patients with respiratory
disease. In an editorial, Bartsch discusses the merits of e-cigarettes as a tool to help people quit smoking.
Many challenges remain in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of asthma. One of many poorly understood
aspects of this condition is the possible association between gastroesophageal reflux disease and asthma in
children. De Benedictis, Tocco and Lombardi review current evidence, highlight gaps in our knowledge and
emphasise the need for caution when prescribing proton-pump inhibitors in this vulnerable patient population.
Biddiscombe and Usmani describe the ideal characteristics for asthma inhalers and consider the reasons why
so many current asthma treatments fail to improve outcomes. Finally, in an expert interview, Adcock discusses a
number of current topics of interest in asthma, including the Unbiased BIOmarkers in PREDiction of respiratory
disease outcomes (U-BIOPRED) study and the definition of asthma phenotypes.
The editors of European Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases would like to thank all expert authors who contributed
towards this edition. We are particularly grateful to our Editorial Board for their continuing support and guidance.
We hope that you enjoy this issue and find plenty of interest among these timely and insightful articles.
