EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY & PULMONARY DISEASES – VOLUME 3 – SUMMER 2017

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 […]

Professor Adcock obtained a degree in biochemistry and physiology from the University of London and later completed a PhD in pharmacology from St Thomas’s Hospital, London, on the role of nuclear receptors on sexual dimorphic patterns in the rat. He performed postdoctoral training at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Brain Metabolism Unit with Professors Tony […]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. In order to minimize the impact of COPD on public health, there is a need for preventative strategies and appropriate methods of management. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has been developing international guidelines for COPD since 1997. […]

A new social phenomenon has occurred since the end of the first decade of the 21st century, namely, the rise of the electronic cigarette (e-cig) also called the electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS). The two names are not strictly equivalent, as the latter implies the presence of nicotine. As a lung physician confronted daily with […]

As physicians, we evaluate patients while they are awake in our clinic. However, sleep is a vulnerable period for the respiratory system because of reductions in minute ventilation, lower lung volumes, increased upper airway resistance and positional ventilation–perfusion mismatching.1,2 Patients with chronic lung disease (CLD) may be at risk for hypoxemia during sleep; they have […]

For two such highly prevalent disorders, the co-existence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in the same patient gets remarkably little attention in routine clinical practice. Recent estimates indicate that up to 50% of adult males in the general population have sleep-disordered breathing based on an apnoea-hypopnoea frequency (AHI) over […]

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER), the intermittent ascent of acid contents into the oesophagus, is a normal physiological process. In contrast, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is present when the reflux of acid contents causes troublesome symptoms and/or complications.1 Asthma and symptomatic GER are both common disorders in childhood and symptoms of GER are frequently reported among children […]

Inhalation therapy has long been recognised as the optimal mode of treatment for the majority of patients with asthma and has played a pivotal role in their management for decades.1 The ability to target drug therapy directly to the site of disease within the lungs maximises local efficacy whilst minimising systemic exposure. Much smaller doses […]