touchREVIEWS in Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases Volume 7, Issue 2, 2022

Welcome to the latest edition of touchREVIEWS in Respiratory & Pulmonary Diseases, which covers several hot topics in respiratory medicine, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease, bronchiectasis and the ever-present subject of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The articles and expert opinions in this journal reflect the progress and challenges in this active […]

Dr Paula K Skarda is a hospitalist and primary internist and works for HealthPartners and Regions Hospital in Minnesota, USA. She has been in practice for 25 years after graduating from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completing the MedPeds residency there. Dr Skarda works as an Associate Program Director for the University of […]

Judith Durham (of The Seekers fame) died in August this year from bronchiectasis – a timely reminder of the morbidity and mortality associated with this disease of chronic airway inflammation and damage and a tribute to Durham’s personal and professional resilience.1 The measles that initiated Durham’s airway damage is mercifully now rare (although bronchiectasis can develop […]

There is a wide range of eosinophil-associated disorders, from common conditions, such as eosinophilic asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), to rarer ones, such as eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders and hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES). The advent of eosinophil-targeted therapies is uncovering which of these disorders are primarily treatable by reducing blood or tissue eosinophils, thus […]

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) frequently complicates rheumatoid arthritis (RA).1 Moreover, it is more common among those who are male, smoke or are seropositive and with increasing age.1 Emergent risk factors include gain-of-function promoter variants in the MUC5B gene and telomere shortening,2 the latter possibly mediated by tobacco exposure.3 Among patients with RA, the predominant types of ILD are usual interstitial […]

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death.1 However, five-year survival in lung cancer varies greatly based on the stage of the disease at diagnosis.2 Early lung cancer diagnosis through screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality in current or former smokers with a history of 30 or more […]

Asthma is a common and heterogeneous disease affecting approximately 10% of the population.1 Severe asthma – a subset of the disease that affects a fraction of patients with asthma but comprises more than half of the morbidity, mortality and costs relating to asthma – is predominantly caused by smouldering type-2 eosinophilic airway inflammation.2,3 Until now, the main strategy […]

There is a genuine interest on the part of researchers and the pharmaceutical industry in developing so-called ‘bifunctional’ drugs – that is, single molecules with two different primary pharmacological actions.1,2 In this context, single molecules that are capable of simultaneously inducing bronchodilation and anti-inflammatory activity are a highly intriguing possibility for treating a variety of obstructive […]

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is characterized by recurrent upper airway obstruction precipitating variable degrees of recurrent desaturations, sleep fragmentation and increased autonomic stimulation. As the global burden of obesity continues to rise, so too has the prevalence of OSA.1 Although OSA is known to be more common in men and older adults, it is now recognized […]