Let’s Read an Article a Month – January 2023

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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. Then I share the 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.  The objective of this paper is to “to assess the association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease” (p6).

Association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the multinational Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

By: Jate Ratanachina, Andre F.S. Amaral, Sara De Matteis, Herve Lawin, Kevin Mortimer, Daniel O. Obaseki, Imed Harrabi, Meriam Denguezli, Emiel F.M. Wouters, Christer Janson, Rune Nielsen, Amund Gulsvik, Hamid Hacene Cherkaski, Filip Mejza, Padukudru Anand Mahesh, Asma Elsony, Rana Ahmed, Wan Tan, Li Cher Loh, Abdul Rashid, Michael Studnicka, Asaad A. Nafees, Terence Seemungal, Althea Aquart-Stewart, Mohammed Al Ghobain, Jinping Zheng, Sanjay Juvekar, Sundeep Salvi, Rain Jogi, David Mannino, Thorarinn Gislason, A. Sonia Buist, Paul Cullinan, and Peter Burney.

European Respiratory Journal 2023 61: 2200469; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00469-2022

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/61/1/2200469

“We found no significant associations between post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio or FVC and work in any of the high-risk occupations. FEV1/FVC was low in coal miners, sandblasters, chemical or plastic processors and steel millers with long durations of exposure, but these associations were not statistically significant. Moreover, there was no evidence of exposure-response associations of either post-bronchodilator lung function measures with any of the specific occupations.”

page 6

“Chronic phlegm but not chronic airflow obstruction was more likely to occur among users than among never-users of solid fuels.”

page 12

“The occurrence of occupational asthma, presenting with wheeze and breathlessness without affecting post-bronchodilator lung function. This can be induced by substances in workplaces such as animal dusts, flour, chemicals and metals.”

page 12

Happy reading and learning!

Farzad Refahi

www.respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-january-2023/

Let’s Read an Article a Month – December 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 review paper is “ to identify the types of available evidence and knowledge gaps in the literature regarding the delivery of aerosolized medication to neonatal and pediatric populations during mechanical ventilation” (p200).

Optimal delivery of aerosolized medication to mechanically ventilated pediatric and neonatal patients: A scoping review

By: Louise Chartrand, Victoria Ploszay and Sébastien Tessier

Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapists (CJRT).
Published online December 16, 2022

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2022-044.pdf

 “We, therefore, recommend more research on aerosol delivery to inform best practice guidelines. We specifically recommend further investigation of more varied ventilator settings and nebulizer positions on the efficacy of the delivery of different aerosolized drugs.”

p202
  • “ the superiority of mesh nebulizers and inferiority of jet nebulizers for delivering albuterol to pediatric patients” (p200). 
  • “Further studies are necessary to determine which [ventilator] settings have an impact and how settings can be optimized to enhance aerosol drug delivery to pediatric patients” (p201).
  • “Optimal placement of devices for delivering aerosolized medication remains unknown” (p202).

As always, take the time to fully read the article. 

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

Dec 30th, 2022

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

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

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 “(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/