EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY & PULMONARY DISEASES – VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1 – SUMMER 2018

Welcome to the summer edition of European Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases. This journal describes current practices and recent advances that directly affect specialists in the diverse field of respiratory medicine, as well as being of interest to the wider biomedical community. Our expert interviews have become a popular feature of our journals, and this edition […]

Q. What are the limitations of current reliever medications in mild asthma? By far the most commonly used reliever medications in asthma are short-acting beta agonists (SABA) such as salbutamol and terbutaline. While these give rapid relief of symptoms, they don’t reduce the underlying inflammation of asthma. In fact, there is evidence that overuse of […]

Q. What are the limitations of dual therapy in COPD? I advocate the need to start treatment of COPD as soon as the diagnosis is made. LABA/LAMA (dual bronchodilation) should be employed in order to optimise bronchodilation. After having maximized bronchodilator treatment with LABA/LAMA regimens, and only in patients with more symptomatic GOLD group D […]

Q. What is the difference between chronic cough and cough hypersensitivity syndrome? Chronic cough is a clinical condition that is defined as cough lasting for at least 8 weeks.2 This definition is used to enable clinicians to trigger a series of steps to diagnose any underlying conditions that may be causing the cough, for example […]

Q. How prevalent is latent tuberculosis infection around the world? LTBI is the stage at which a person has been infected by M. tuberculosis but has not developed the disease. These people develop an immune reaction which can be detected by an indirect test (tuberculin skin test or interferon-gamma release assay), but have no symptoms […]

The European Respiratory Society (ERS) taskforce on the diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in childhood, defined obstructive SDB as “a syndrome of upper airway dysfunction during sleep, characterised by snoring and/or increased respiratory effort secondary to increased upper airway resistance and pharyngeal collapsibility”.1 In this statement, two technical definitions of obstructive […]

Highlights Alpha 1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency (AATD) is a rare genetic risk factor that predisposes an individual to develop early-onset emphysema. It occurs most commonly in people of European heritage. Accurate diagnosis of severe AATD, including those cases associated with rare genotypes, is an important goal of clinical care as it facilitates early intervention. Despite this, AATD is […]

Aerosol administration of drug therapies is a well-established and increasingly important delivery method for patients with acute or chronic respiratory conditions, especially for those receiving critical care. Aerosol therapies are now given to one-quarter of critically ill patients and one-fifth of ventilated patients, and they are widely used in chronic respiratory conditions, particularly chronic obstructive […]

Inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO), previously designated as vocal cord dysfunction (VCD), is characterised by a transient and reversible narrowing of the larynx in response to external triggers, resulting in symptoms such as cough, dyspnoea and noisy breathing.1,2 Adduction of the vocal folds usually occurs in inhalation but can also happen in exhalation, restricting movement of […]