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 – July 2022

by
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/

Let’s read an article a month – June 2022

by
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 compare the impact of wearing different masks during a 6MWT on respiratory symptoms, SpO2, and functional capacity” (p86).

Effects of wearing different facial masks on respiratory symptoms, oxygen saturation, and functional capacity during six-minute walk test in healthy subjects

By Sauwaluk Dacha, Busaba Chuatrakoon, Kanphajee Sornkaew, Kamonchanok Sutthakhun, Putsamon Weeranorapanich, Vanesa Bellou, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Maarten van Smeden, Karel G.M. Moons, Evangelos Evangelou and Lazaros Belbasis

Can J Respir Ther Vol 58

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2022-014.pdf

Wearing different masks while performing submaximal functional activities results in no difference in oxygen saturation and functional exercise performance. However, wearing cloth masks and N95 masks results in increased dyspnea and breathing effort.

p89

It is important to note that this is a small study of 29 young and healthy subjects who did not have any cardiopulmonary disease or limitations (p86).

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

June 27, 2022

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

Let’s read an article a month – May 2022

by
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 “to conduct a nationwide cohort study of the effect of exposure to immunosuppressants on the risk of hospital admission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death among all SARS-CoV-2 test-positive patients in Denmark from February 2020 to October 2020” (p2).

The effect of immunosuppressants on the prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection

By: Daniel Ward, Sanne Gørtz, Martin Thomson Ernst, Nynne Nyboe Andersen, Susanne K. Kjær, Jesper Hallas, Steffen Christensen, Christian Fynbo Christiansen, Simone Bastrup Israelsen, Thomas Benfield, Anton Pottegård, and Tine Jess.

European Respiratory Journal 2022 59: 2100769; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00769-2021

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/59/4/2100769.full.pdf

Just a few quotes from the article to get you thinking and started:

“A composite immunosuppressant exposure was associated with a significantly increased risk of death, which was mainly driven by a doubling of risk associated with systemic glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoids were also associated with a 34% increased risk of hospital admission, while the risk of ICU admission was not significantly increased”.

Page 6

 “Glucocorticoids were associated with increased risk of ICU admission or death in patients with comorbid inflammatory bowel diseases; glucocorticoids were associated with greater risk of hospital admission in patients with comorbid rheumatic diseases”.

Page 6

“While other pharmacological interventions remain relevant research candidates, evidence from multiple sources indicates the importance of glucocorticoids on prognosis, the effect of which may depend on timing in the disease course. Our findings that other immunosuppressants were not significantly associated with severe outcomes are tentative, but in context they support the continued use of steroid-sparing immunosuppressants for a broad patient population with ongoing healthcare needs during the pandemic.” (pp 7-8).

Pages 7 to 8

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

March 27, 2022

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