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Let’s read an article a month – June 2021

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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 try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

This month’s article falls under infection and lung function. The objective of this paper is to “systematically evaluating the persisting cardiopulmonary damage of COVID-19 patients 60 days and 100 days after COVID-19 onset” (p2).

Cardiopulmonary recovery after COVID-19: an observational prospective

  multicentre trial

By:  Thomas Sonnweber, Sabina Sahanic, Alex Pizzini, Anna Luger, Christoph

  Schwabl, Bettina Sonnweber, Katharina Kurz, Sabine Koppelstätter, David

  Haschka, Verena Petzer, Anna Boehm, Magdalena Aichner, Piotr Tymoszuk,

  Daniela Lener, Markus Theurl, Almut Lorsbach-Köhler, Amra Tancevski, Anna

  Schapfl, Marc Schaber, Richard Hilbe, Manfred Nairz, Bernhard Puchner,

  Doris Hüttenberger, Christoph Tschurtschenthaler, Malte Aßhoff, Andreas

  Peer, Frank Hartig, Romuald Bellmann, Michael Joannidis, Can

  Gollmann-Tepeköylü, Johannes Holfeld, Gudrun Feuchtner, Alexander Egger,

  Gregor Hoermann, Andrea Schroll, Gernot Fritsche, Sophie Wildner, Rosa

  Bellmann-Weiler, Rudolf Kirchmair, Raimund Helbok, Helmut Prosch, Dietmar

  Rieder, Zlatko Trajanoski, Florian Kronenberg, Ewald Wöll, Günter Weiss,

  Gerlig Widmann, Judith Löffler-Ragg and Ivan Tancevski.

  Eur Respir J 2021 57:2003481; published ahead of print 2020,

  doi:10.1183/13993003.03481-2020 OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

Link to the ERS article page  http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/57/4/2003481?etoc

Reasons you may find this article interesting 

  • I have noticed a trend of increased referrals for patients with past diagnoses of COVID19.  As the local rates for the virus decreases, patients and ordering physicians have felt more confident sending patient to the outpatient PFT lab of the hospital.  This is another useful article to better plan and look after such patients. 
  • While this study has its limitations such as 
    • being specific to Austria, 
    • includes individuals with existing comorbidities, and 
    • lacks pre-infection diagnostic testing, 

      However, it still delivers a lot of useful information.  The study includes questionnaires, PFT, cap. Gas samples, TEE, CT and other routine lab examinations (p3).  I strongly recommend that you look over each component in the results section: Clinical Evaluation at follow-up, Cardiopulmonary evaluation at follow-up, Serological Markers, and Pulmonary Imaging (pp 4-6).

Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-june-2021/

Let’s read an article a month – May 2021

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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 try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

This month I found a great piece to share with you.  This one falls under the infection and lung function categories. The objective of this paper is to “ [assess] patient-reported dyspnoea, lung function, quality of life (QoL) and parenchymal opacities in chest CT scans 3 months after hospital admission for COVID-19 in a prospective, consecutive Norwegian cohort of patients with or without ICU treatment. ” [p2]. 

Dyspnoea, lung function and CT findings 3 months after hospital admission for COVID-19

By: Tøri Vigeland Lerum, Trond Mogens Aaløkken, Eivind Brønstad, Bernt Aarli, Eirik Ikdahl , Kristine Marie Aarberg Lund , Michael T. Durheim, Jezabel Rivero Rodriguez , Carin Meltzer , Kristian Tonby, Knut Stavem, Ole Henning Skjønsberg, Haseem Ashraf and Gunnar Einvik. 

Eur Respir J 2021; 57: 2003448

Link to the pdf/article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/57/4/2003448.full.pdf

Why this article caught my attention:

  • It helped me have a better understanding of the recovery process of individuals with COVID19.  There will be a lot of focus on the recovery and rehab of patients once we are done with the peak of this pandemic.  
  • Includes valuable information as it focuses on symptoms and various diagnostic data which includes PFT and CT scans! Check out page 3 and also Table 2 on page 5 for more information

I really hope that more studies like this will be conducted on our COVID19 patients.

How are you preparing for COVID19 Rehab? Which set of data and recommendations are you using?

Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi

May 31st, 2021

Let’s read an article a month – April 2021

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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 try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

This month I found a great piece to share with you.  This one is about chronic bronchitis. The objective of this paper is to “assess the prevalence of chronic bronchitis in young adults in a Swedish population-based birth cohort and to identify early-life risk factors, including environmental exposures, for disease development” (p2). 

Assessment of chronic bronchitis and risk factors in young adults: results from BAMSE

By: Gang Wang, Jenny Hallberg, Petra Um Bergström, Christer Janson, Göran Pershagen, Olena Gruzieva, Marianne van Hage, Antonios Georgelis, Anna Bergström, Inger Kull, Anders Lindén, and Erik Melén. 

European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) 2021 57: 2002120 ; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.02120-2020

Link to the ERJ page: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/57/3/2002120?etoc

Link to the pdf page: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/57/3/2002120.full.pdf

3 Reasons why I found this article interesting

  • Authors comment on the impact of cigarette and e-cigarettes and chronic bronchitis in young adults (direct and indirect). Also, authors included factors such as breastfeeding as a protective factor which is something I would not have immediately thought of.
  • It includes a 24-year follow up assessment. They have excluded asthmatic patients to make their observation more accurate.  Various assessment tools were included, including self-assessments, pre and post spirometry, and FeNO2. 
  • This study reminded me that this condition “may exist with our without airway obstruction” p7.

What’s your experience with chronic bronchitis in young adults? Have you noticed a pattern?

Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi
April 16, 2021

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-April-2021/

Let’s read an article a month – March 2021

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

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

This article is about COPD and COPD exacerbation. The authors describe the objectives of this paper as following: 

 The first objective of this study was to evaluate whether the data from the ECLIPSE and SPIROMICS studies support the presence of an individual-specific, underlying AECOPD rate which is stable over time. The second objective was to explore, based on the findings from the first objective, the randomness of observed AECOPD counts in a 12-month period, in order to determine the suitability of this factor for phenotypic classification.

p2

Should the number of acute exacerbations in the previous year be used to guide treatments in COPD?

By: Mohsen Sadatsafavi, James McCormack, John Petkau, Larry D. Lynd, Tae Yoon Lee, Don D. Sin

European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) 2021 57: 2002122; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.02122-2020

Link to the journal ERJ: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/57/2/2002122?etoc

Direct link to the article (pdf):  https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/57/2/2002122.full.pdf

Reasons I enjoyed reading this article

  • It makes you appreciate the complexity involved in predicting future COPD exacerbation.  It is not as simple as looking at a patient’s number of exacerbations in the previous year.
  • The ECLIPSE and SPIROMICS studies are looked at and comments are made about the “difference” in findings.  
  • It is always nice to see the work of Canadian clinicians and researchers! 

Read the article and let me know what you think!  What are the factors used by your organization to predict and prevent future COPD exacerbations? 

Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi

March 28, 20201 

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-march-2021/

Let’s read an article a month – February 2021

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

Every month I try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the tittle and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/56/6/2000556?etoc

Link to the blog post: https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-february-2021/

This month I found a great piece to share with you.  This one is a prospective, open-label, single-arm study. The objective of this paper is to “evaluate the feasibility, efficacy and safety of metered cryospray therapy to treat patients with chronic bronchitis in COPD”  p3.

A prospective safety and feasibility study of metered cryospray for patients with chronic bronchitis in COPD

By Justin L. Garner, Tawimas Shaipanich, Jorine E. Hartman, Christopher M. Orton, Cielito Caneja, Karin Klooster, John Thornton, Don D. Sin, Dirk-Jan Slebos and Pallav L. Shah.

Eur Respir J 2020 56:2000556; published ahead of print 2020,

doi:10.1183/13993003.00556-2020
Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/56/6/2000556?etoc

Reasons I found this article interesting 

  • I didn’t know about metered cryospray therapy (MCS) and this article introduced me to its application in chronic bronchitis. Its intent is to “cryoablate abnormal epithelium and excessive mucous-producing goblet cells” p2.
  • The method of application is clearly explained in this article.  On page 3, the authors explain the three treatments and which lobes and airway pathways received the MCS therapy in each of those treatment sessions. 

While I am still unsure about the safety of this therapy until further research and improvements are done, I enjoyed learning about the unique approach.  I say this as the sample was only 34 subjects.  Also, “no definitive histological differences were observed between baseline and day 60 endobronchial biopsies” p10. 

If you were not aware of this therapy, this may be a good article for you to read. If you have applied this therapy in the past, I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences.  Leave a comment and let me know!

Happy learning!

Farzad Refahi

Feb. 1st, 2021

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-february-2021/