Login to your account

Username *
Password *
Remember Me

Blog With Right Sidebar

    Vous êtes ici :  
  1. Accueil
  2. Blog With Right Sidebar

Which individuals are at increased risk of pneumococcal disease and why? Impact of COPD, asthma, smoking, diabetes, and/or chronic heart disease on community-acquired pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease.

Related Articles

Pneumococcal disease (including community-acquired pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease) poses a burden to the community all year round, especially in those with chronic underlying conditions.

Individuals with COPD, asthma or who smoke, and those with chronic heart disease or diabetes mellitus have been shown to be at increased risk of pneumococcal disease compared with those without these risk factors. These conditions, and smoking, can also adversely affect patient outcomes, including short-term and long-term mortality rates, following pneumonia. Community-acquired pneumonia, and in particular pneumococcal pneumonia, is associated with a significant economic burden, especially in those who are hospitalised, and also has an impact on a patient's quality of life.

Therefore, physicians should target individuals with COPD, asthma, heart disease or diabetes mellitus, and those who smoke, for pneumococcal vaccination at the earliest opportunity at any time of the year.

Can 'extrafine' dry powder aerosols improve lung deposition?

Related Articles

There is increasing interest in the use of so-called 'extrafine' aerosols to target the small airways in the management of asthma and COPD. Using previously presented deposition data, we assessed whether submicron (<1μm) particles can improve central and deep lung deposition.

Our data show instead that particles in the range 1-3μm are much more relevant in this respect. Based on this finding the Symbicort Turbuhaler, Seretide Diskus, Rolenium Elpenhaler and Foster (Fostair) NEXThaler ICS/LABA combination DPIs were tested in vitro as a function of the pressure drop (2, 4 and 6kPa) across the inhaler. Obtained fine particle fractions (FPFs) <5μm (as percent of label claim) were divided into subfractions <1. 1-3 and 3-5μm. Differences of up to a factor of 4 were found between the best (Turbuhaler) and worst performing DPI (Elpenhaler), particularly for the FPF in the size range 1-3μm. The NEXThaler, described as delivering 'extrafine' particles, did not appear to be superior in this size range.

The marked differences in amount and size distribution of the aerosols between the devices in this study must cause significant differences in the total lung dose and drug distribution over the airways.

Inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its role in cardiovascular disease and lung cancer.

Related Articles

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by lung inflammation that persists after smoking cessation. This inflammation is heterogeneous but the key inflammatory cell types involved are macrophages, neutrophils and T cells. Other lung cells may also produce inflammatory mediators, particularly the epithelial cells. The main inflammatory mediators include tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1, interleukin-6, reactive oxygen species and proteases.

COPD is also associated with systemic inflammation and there is a markedly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (particularly coronary artery disease) and lung cancer in patients with COPD. There is strong associative evidence that the inflammatory cells/mediators in COPD are also relevant to the development of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. There are a large number of potential inhibitors of inflammation in COPD that may well have beneficial effects for these comorbidities.

This is a not well-understood area and there is a requirement for more definitive clinical and mechanistic studies to define the relationship between the inflammatory process of COPD and cardiovascular disease and lung cancer.

The GINA asthma strategy report: what's new for primary care?

The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) was established in 1993 by the World Health Organization and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to develop a global strategy for managing and preventing asthma.

GINA reports, now funded independently through the sale of GINA products, have provided the foundation for many national guidelines. They are prepared by international experts from primary, secondary and tertiary care, and are annually updated following a review of evidence. In 2014, a major revision of the GINA report was published, that took into account advances in evidence not only about asthma and its treatment, but also about how to improve implementation of evidence-based recommendations in clinical practice.

This paper summarises key changes relevant to primary care in the new GINA report. A noticeable difference is the report's radically different approach, now clinically-focussed, with multiple practical tools and flow charts to improve its utility for busy frontline clinicians. Key changes in recommendations include a new, diagnosis-centred definition of asthma; more detail about how to assess current symptom control and future risk; a comprehensive approach to tailoring treatment for individual patients; expanded indications for commencing inhaled corticosteroids; new recommendations for written asthma action plans; a new chapter on diagnosis and initial treatment of patients with asthma-COPD overlap syndrome; and a revised approach to diagnosing asthma in preschool children.

The 2014 GINA report (further updated in 2015) moved away from a 'textbook' approach to provide clinicians with up-to-date evidence about strategies to control symptoms and minimise asthma risk, in a practical, practice-centred format.

[The feasibility of screening for COPD and asthma in the general population].

There are very few surveys devoted to the prevalence of asthma and COPD in the general population. The Motorola Health System has been developed to make such surveys easier.

OBJECTIVES: The main objective was to assess the acceptability and efficacy of the Motorola Health system in collecting health data at home in the context of an epidemiological study of respiratory health. The secondary objective was to determine whether a home-based survey would lead to a higher participation rate than a hospital-based survey.

METHODS: Four hundred and eighty-three individuals were selected from the electoral rolls of the 15th district of Marseille and randomly divided into two groups: home-based and hospital-based. The protocol included a questionnaire, several measurements: height, weight, blood pressure, spirometry and pulse oxymetry, and blood sampling. All data were transferred to a portable computer.

RESULTS: Data acquisition and transfer worked well. Among the 232 subjects from the home-based survey, 62 (26.7%) participated, whereas only 36 (14.3%) of the 251 subjects from the hospital-based group did so (P<0.001). In an additional telephone survey, participants (13.6%) and non-participants (11.0%) had the same (P<0.9) prevalence of asthma.

CONCLUSION: The Motorola Health System allowed accurate data acquisition and transfer in the context of an epidemiological survey of respiratory health. A home-based survey gave a higher participation rate than a hospital-based one.

Search

Search