Article

Let’s Read an Article a Month – March 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 title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up-to-date, and continue to grow.

The objective of this month’s paper is to “characterize the mental health and functioning of Canadian RTs and compare profiles between RTs working on and off designated COVID-19 units” (p3).

Characterizing the mental health and functioning of Canadian respiratory therapists during the COVID-19 pandemic

By D’Alessandro-Lowe AM, Ritchie K, Brown A, Xue Y, Pichtikova M, Altman M, Beech I, Millman H, Levy Y, Asma S, Hassall K, Foster F, Rodrigues S, Hosseiny F, O’Connor C, Heber A, Malain A, Schielke H, Lanius RA, McCabe RE, and McKinnon MC.. 

Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2023;14(1):2171751. doi: 10.1080/20008066.2023.2171751. PMID: 36880459; PMCID: PMC9990694.

Link to the article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9990694/pdf/ZEPT_14_2171751.pdf

“The results of the present study suggest the need for adequate mental health supports for Canadian RTs. “

page 8

“ Almost one in five (18%) of the participants scored above the cut-offs for depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD, collectively.”

page 7

“ Depression, anxiety and stress, PTSD and functional impairment scores did not significantly differ between those on and off COVID-19 units (p’s > .05) .“

page 7

“RTs are excluded from presumptive legislation surrounding PTSD in some Canadian provinces.”

page 8

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

March 18th, 2023

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-MARCH-2023/

Let’s Read an Article a Month – February 2023

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. Then, 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.


The objective of this month’s paper is to evaluate “the dose-exposure and safety of nintedanib in children and adolescents with fibrosing ILD” (p2).

Nintedanib in children and adolescents with fibrosing interstitial lung diseases

By: Robin Deterding, Lisa R. Young, Emily M. DeBoer, David Warburton, Steven Cunningham, Nicolaus Schwerk, Kevin R. Flaherty, Kevin K. Brown, Mihaela Dumistracel, Elvira Erhardt, Julia Bertulis, Martina Gahlemann, Susanne Stowasser, and Matthias Griese for the InPedILD trial investigators.

European Respiratory Journal 2023 61: 2201512;
DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01512-2022

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/61/2/2201512

“ The results demonstrated that nintedanib had an acceptable safety profile in this patient population. “

page 8

 “..the pharmacokinetic data from the InPedILD trial show that the weight-based dosing regimen achieved exposure in paediatric patients that was comparable to that observed in adults treated with 150 mg twice daily, supporting the use of this dosing regimen in the paediatric population.”

page 8

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

Feb. 15th, 2023

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-February-2023/

Let’s Read an Article a Month – January 2023

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. 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 – February 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.
 
This month I found an interesting piece to share with you.  This one falls under the innovation category and is about a product called CleanSweep.  The objective of this paper is to introduce CleanSweep and assess “whether the CleanSweep suction catheter is more efficient for secretion removal than the standard suction catheter” (p.138).  To give a quick description, CleanSweep is a “closed-system suctioning device with an integrated inflatable balloon at its tip. … The balloon is not designed to be inflated with the catheter beyond the distal end of the ETT, and it is only inflated during catheter withdrawal thus “sweeping” the secretions off the interior wall of the ETT” (p.138)
Before you continue, I would like to add a quick disclaimer that this is not an endorsement or a sponsored blog post. Please continue to use products that have been approved by your employer.

Evaluation of a novel endotracheal tube suctioning system incorporating an inflatable sweeper 

By John D. Davies, MA, RRT, Yuh Chin Huang, MD, MHS, and Neil R. MacIntyre, MD.

Can J Respir Ther 2021;57:138–142. doi: 10.29390/cjrt-2021-02

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2021-026.pdf

Reasons I found this article interesting

  • The device has a physical “sweeping” method for removing secretions in the ETT versus just a suction method.
  • It is a closed suction system and the valve provides three options of ‘locked, suction only mode and suction and balloon mode (p139). 
  • It was published on CJRT, a publication I trust.
  • The authors were clear and transparent about their conflict of interests, on page 141, and also clear about the limitations of their study:
    • “Neither our study nor other studies on mechanical ETT cleaners have been designed to be long enough nor large enough to demonstrate improved clinical outcomes linked to improved secretion removal. To do this will require large expensive randomized controlled trials following many patients over long periods assessing such outcomes as hospital length of stay and even mortality. “ (p141)

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

Feb. 6, 2022

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

Let’s read an article a month – January 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. Then, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

The coexistence of asthma and COPD: risk factors, clinical history and lung function trajectories

By: Alessandro Marcon, Francesca Locatelli, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Cecilie Svanes, Joachim Heinrich, Bénédicte Leynaert, Peter Burney, Angelo Corsico, Gulser Caliskan, Lucia Calciano, Thorarinn Gislason, Christer Janson, Deborah Jarvis, Rain Jõgi, Theodore Lytras, Andrei Malinovschi, Nicole Probst-Hensch, Kjell Toren, Lidia Casas, Giuseppe Verlato, Judith Garcia-Aymerich, and Simone Accordini on behalf of the Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts (ALEC) study

European Respiratory Journal 2021 58: 2004656; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.04656-2020

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/58/5/2004656.full.pdf

The reasons I found this article interesting 

A detailed study with around 20 years of medical history. A large number of individuals [14864, 9251 and 6122, respectively in ECRHS I, II and III who underwent clinical examinations, from 23 centres] (p4).  Useful observations were presented based on past asthma, current asthma, asthma + COPD, and COPD alone. A recommended article to students, new RRTs and even experienced clinicians.  There are many results, findings and conclusions that I cannot cover in a post. As always, I recommend that you read the full article for yourself.

”Lung function decline for subjects with asthma + COPD could have been mitigated by long-term anti-inflammatory treatment. “ (p9).

“The coexistence of asthma and COPD  seems to be a form of severe asthma with severe asthma with origins early in life, as opposed to COPD alone, which is more linked to adult exposures.”  (p10).

”…COPD without concomitant features of asthma seems predominantly linked to adult-life toxic inhalant exposures.  Exposure avoidance (e.g. through smoking cessation and reduction of pollution exposure in occupational settings) may be particularly beneficial against the development of the “pure COPD” phenotype…” (p10).

Happy reading and learning.

Farzad Refahi

January 01, 2022

Link to the blog post: https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-January-2022/