Let’s read an article a month – June 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 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

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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 “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/

Let’s read an article a month – April 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  “discover whether there is any difference for Trelegy as compared with multiple inhalers use for adherence, symptoms, medication beliefs, and medication attitudes” (p45).

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients’ experience using Trelegy as compared with other inhalers

By Hyfaa Mashaal, Joshua Fogel, Najia Sayedy, Ruchi Jalota Sahota and Jagadish Akella.

Can J Respir Ther Vol 58. Published online at https://www.cjrt.ca on 25 March 2022

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2021-041.pdf

A few notes about this article

  • This article provides a quick review of COPD and Trelegy ( Fluticasone furotate, umeclidinium and vilanterol) (pp 44-45).
  • I was surprised to see that there was an increased reported symptoms with Trelegy, and no difference with inhaler adherence when compared to the other medication groups (p 46).  
  • Very important to mention that this is a small sample study. The authors do state that different findings were observed with larger sample size studies;  Check out number 27 and 28 items under the reference list:
    • 27. Yu AP, Guérin A, Ponce de Leon D, et al. Therapy persistence and adherence in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: multiple versus single long-acting maintenance inhalers. J Med Econ 2011;14(4):486–96. doi: 10.3111/13696998.2011.594123.
    • 28. Brandstetter S, Finger T, Fischer W, et al. Differences in medication adherence are associated with beliefs about medicines in asthma and COPD. Clin Transl Allergy 2017;7:39. Doi: 10.1186/s13601- 017-0175-6. 

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

April 1st, 2022

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