Farzad 'Raffi' Refahi

Respiratory Blog, associated with Respiratory Therapy by Farzad,  began with a goal of improving the lives of healthcare providers as individuals and as clinicians.   There is a focus on cardio-respiratory concepts from the perspective of a Respiratory Therapist.

Let’s read an article a month – November 2022 

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. I share the title and associated link with my followers to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up-to-date, and continue to grow.

The objective of this month’s paper is to “examine the associations of early-life upper and lower respiratory tract infections with lung function and asthma at school age” (p3).

Early-life respiratory tract infections and the risk of school-age lower lung function and asthma: a meta-analysis of 150 000 European children

By: Evelien R. van Meel, Sara M. Mensink-Bout, Herman T. den Dekker, Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia, Isabella Annesi-Maesano, Syed Hasan Arshad, Nour Baïz, Henrique Barros, Andrea von Berg, Hans Bisgaard, Klaus Bønnelykke, Christian J. Carlsson, Maribel Casas, Leda Chatzi, Cecile Chevrier, Geertje Dalmeijer, Carol Dezateux, Karel Duchen, Merete Eggesbø, Cornelis van der Ent, Maria Fantini, Claudia Flexeder, Urs Frey, Fransesco Forastiere, Ulrike Gehring, Davide Gori, Raquel Granell, Lucy J. Griffiths, Hazel Inskip, Joanna Jerzynska, Anne M. Karvonen, Thomas Keil, Cecily Kelleher, Manolis Kogevinas, Gudrun Koppen, Claudia E. Kuehni, Nathalie Lambrechts, Susanne Lau, Irina Lehmann, Johnny Ludvigsson, Maria Christine Magnus, Erik Mélen, John Mehegan, Monique Mommers, Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, Wenche Nystad, Eva S.L. Pedersen, Juha Pekkanen, Ville Peltola, Katharine C. Pike, Angela Pinot de Moira, Costanza Pizzi, Kinga Polanska, Maja Popovic, Daniela Porta, Graham Roberts, Ana Cristina Santos, Erica S. Schultz, Marie Standl, Jordi Sunyer, Carel Thijs, Laura Toivonen, Eleonora Uphoff, Jakob Usemann, Marina Vafeidi, John Wright, Johan C. de Jongste, Vincent W.V. Jaddoe, Liesbeth Duijts”

European Respiratory Journal 2022 60: 2102395; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.02395-2021 . Received: 2 Sept 2021. Accepted: 9 March 2022.

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/60/4/2102395.full.pdf

  • “The prevalence of upper and lower respiratory tract infections was highest at the age of 1 year” (p4).
  • “The mean prevalence of asthma across all cohorts was 12.3%” (p4).

“1) early-life upper respiratory tract infections were associated with an increased risk of school-age asthma, not lung function, and 2) early-life lower respiratory tract infections were associated with increased risks of both school-age lower lung function (FEV1, FEV1/FVC and FEF75%) and asthma. “

p7

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

November 9th, 2022

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-November-2022/

Happy RT / RC Week 2022

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Image by Avi Chomotovski from Pixabay

My respiratory therapy (RT) week tradition is to sit back, reflect, and thank those who have positively impacted my life and career over the past twelve months.
Please forgive me if I have missed your name in this blog post.

I have the opportunity to work, volunteer and take a moment to write this note because of the support of my fantastic wife, Jessica. She is a strong woman who has done an incredible job raising our daughter. Thank you Sophia for being a good girl and making good choices ( any Brene Brown fans here who get this reference? 🙂 ). Thank you, Sherry, my mother, for continuing to share your love and energy with my family despite everything you have gone through over the past two years.

John Meloche of Melotel Inc., I appreciate your sponsorship and support of my online presence.

Carolyn McCoy, Andrew West, Gino De Pinto, Kelly Hassall, Sue Jones, Andrea White-Markham, Julia Infantino, Sheery Tse, Jody S. , Anna E, Sam G. , Mieke F. , Julie Brown, Dr. Mika N. , Bernie Ho, Carolyn G. , Ronald Chan, Dr Y. Shukla, Dr D. Dancey, Sarah Dawe, Rosa Grande, Monique V.H., and Dr Effie. Thank you all for your support.

Thank you to the followers of this blog who continue to support and motivate me.

Thank you

Farzad
Oct. 29th , 2022

www.respiratory.blog/RTweek2022/

Let’s read an article a month – September 2022

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. I share the title and associated link with my followers to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

The objective of this month’s paper is to “(i) identify the respiratory education gaps within frontline health workers in the initiation of integrated care coordination and (ii) outline organizational strategies to initiate integrated care coordination towards comprehensive evidence-based management and treatment for COPD patients.” (p128).

Educating frontline health workers to support evidence-based management and treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients: A literature review

By: Karen Y. Brooks and Ryna Levy-Milne

Published online August 17, 2022

Can J Respir Ther Vol 58  pp 127-135

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2021-079.pdf

“Based on the results from this methodology and thematic analysis, two prominent recurrent themes within the 18 articles were identified as contributing factors to challenges, deficits, and organizational strategic solutions. The themes included: (i) perceived challenges of frontline health worker respiratory education related to lack of knowledge and education to support the patient and (ii) current deficits in organizational strategies, collaboration, resources, and educational interventions related to lack of interprofessional collaboration (IPC); lack of organizational resources; and lack of organizational educational interventions.”

pp 128-129

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

September 20th, 2022

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-september-2022/

Let’s read an article a month – August 2022

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. I share the title and associated link with my followers to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.
The objective of this month’s paper is  [ to describe pediatric intubations in an adult-based community hospital system, with the primary outcomes being first-pass success (FPS) and AEs and the secondary objectives were to determine what factors were associated with intubated related AEs and to describe the outcomes of children transferred to a pediatric quaternary-care institution ] (p70).

Outcomes and follow-up for children intubated in an adult-based community hospital system: A retrospective chart review

By: Mika L. Nonoyama, Vinay Kukreti, Efrosini Papaconstantinou, Natascha Kozlowski and Sarah Tsimelkas.

Can J Respir Ther Vol 58

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2022-015.pdf

” There were significantly more intubation attempts between patients who had an adverse event (AE) compared to those that did not. This study found no significant differences in first-pass success (FPS) , AEs, and mortality between pediatrician or anaesthesia intubators, compared to all others (ED physician, respiratory therapist (RT), transfer team, or paramedic). There were no significant differences in any clinical variable measures at any time point, between those with and without FPS or between those who did or did not have an AE. “

p. 72

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

August 30, 2022

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-august-2022/

Let’s read an article a month – July 2022

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. I share the title and associated link with my followers to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

The objective of this month’s paper is “to evaluate whether inhaled tiotropium via HandiHaler, similar to COPD, reduced exacerbations and improved lung function in adult patients with bronchiectasis and airflow limitation” (p2).

Tiotropium treatment for bronchiectasis: a randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover trial

By: Lata Jayaram, Alain C. Vandal, Catherina L. Chang, Chris Lewis, Cecilia Tong, Christine Tuffery, Jill Bell, Wendy Fergusson, Gene Jeon, David Milne, Stuart Jones, Noel Karalus, Sandra Hotu, and Conroy Wong.

European Respiratory Journal 2022 59: 2102184; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.02184-2021

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/59/6/2102184.full.pdf

  • “Exacerbations did not decline with tiotropium compared with placebo despite the improvement in lung function” (p7).
  • [While lung function improvement reached statistical significance in our study, with post-bronchodilator differences in FEV1 of 58 ml (3%) and FVC of 78 ml over the 6-month period, the clinical relevance of these results is unclear, given the lack of improvement in other patient-related outcome measures] (p7).

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

July 25, 2022

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-july-2022/