The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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Multicenter Study
The independent contribution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection to long-term clinical outcomes in bronchiectasis.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is responsible for chronic infection in many bronchiectasis patients but it is not known whether it is associated with worse clinical outcomes independent of the underlying severity of disease. This study analysed data from 2596 bronchiectasis patients included from 10 different bronchiectasis clinical centres across Europe and Israel, with a 5-year follow-up period. Prevalence of P. aeruginosa chronic infection and its independent impact on exacerbations, hospitalisations, quality of life and mortality was assessed. ⋯ An independent association with worse quality of life of 7.46 points (95% CI 2.93-12.00; p=0.001) was found in a multivariable linear regression. P. aeruginosa was therefore found to be independently associated with exacerbation frequency, hospital admissions and worse quality of life. Mortality was increased in patients with P. aeruginosa particularly in the presence of frequent exacerbations.
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The lungs and heart are irrevocably linked in their oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport functions. Functional impairment of the lungs often affects heart function and vice versa The steepness with which ventilation (V'E) rises with respect to CO2 production (V'CO2 ) (i.e. the V'E/V'CO2 slope) is a measure of ventilatory efficiency and can be used to identify an abnormal ventilatory response to exercise. ⋯ An altered PaCO2 set-point and chemosensitivity are present in many cardiopulmonary diseases, which influence V'E/V'CO2 by affecting PaCO2 Increased ventilation-perfusion heterogeneity, causing inefficient gas exchange, also contributes to the abnormal V'E/V'CO2 observed in cardiopulmonary diseases by increasing VD/VT During cardiopulmonary exercise testing, the PaCO2 during exercise is often not measured and VD/VT is only estimated by taking into account the end-tidal CO2 partial pressure (PETCO2 ); however, PaCO2 is not accurately estimated from PETCO2 in patients with cardiopulmonary disease. Measuring arterial gases (PaO2 and PaCO2 ) before and during exercise provides information on the real (and not "estimated") VD/VT coupled with a true measure of gas exchange efficiency such as the difference between alveolar and arterial O2 partial pressure and the difference between arterial and end-tidal CO2 partial pressure during exercise.
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Perinatal exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with childhood asthma incidence, however, less is known regarding the potential effect modifiers in this association. We examined whether maternal and infant characteristics modified the association between perinatal exposure to air pollution and development of childhood asthma.761 172 births occurring between 2006 and 2012 were identified in the province of Ontario, Canada. ⋯ Enhanced impacts were found among children born to mothers with asthma, those who smoked during pregnancy, boys, those born preterm, of low birth weight and among those born to mothers living in urban areas during pregnancy. Prenatal exposure to air pollution may have a differential impact on the risk of asthma development according to maternal and infant characteristics.
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What is the experience of people living with breathlessness due to medical conditions, those caring for them and those treating them, with regard to quality of life and the nature of clinical interactions?Electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus and PsycINFO) were searched (January 1987 to October 2017; English language), for qualitative studies exploring the experience of chronic breathlessness (patients, carers and clinicians). Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts and papers retrieved against inclusion criteria. Disagreements were resolved with a third reviewer. ⋯ The themes were combined to form the concept of "breathing space", to show how engaged coping and appropriate help-seeking (patient) and attention to symptom (clinician) helps maximise the patient's quality of living with breathlessness. Breathlessness has widespread impact on both patient and carer and affects breathing space. The degree of breathing space is influenced by interaction between the patient's coping style, their help-seeking behaviour and their clinician's responsiveness to breathlessness itself, in addition to managing the underlying disease.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Emphysema and extrapulmonary tissue loss in COPD: a multi-organ loss of tissue phenotype.
We tested whether emphysema progression accompanies enhanced tissue loss in other body compartments in 1817 patients from the ECLIPSE chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) cohort. Clinical and selected systemic biomarker measurements were compared in subjects grouped by quantitative tomography scan emphysema quartiles using the percentage of low attenuation area (LAA%). Lowest and highest quartile patients had amino-acid metabolomic profiles. ⋯ Patients with more emphysema had accelerated FEV1, BMI and FFMI decline and more exacerbations, hospitalisations and mortality. COPD patients with more emphysema undergo excessive loss of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tissue, which is probably related to abnormal tissue maintenance. Because of worse clinical outcomes, we propose this subgroup be named the multi-organ loss of tissue (MOLT) COPD phenotype.