AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Cannabis, Pulmonary Disease, UCSF / 27.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Matthew L. Springer, Ph.D. Professor of Medicine Division of Cardiology University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We've known for many years that secondhand smoke from tobacco cigarettes is harmful, and the vast majority of deaths thought to result from secondhand smoke are from cardiovascular disease. However, very little has been known about cardiovascular consequences of exposure to secondhand smoke from marijuana, and people tend to mistake the lack of evidence that it is harmful, for evidence that is it not harmful. As a result, many people seem relatively unconcerned about smoking marijuana and being exposed (or exposing others) to marijuana secondhand smoke. Politicians and policy makers also seem less willing to limit where people can smoke marijuana (under legal circumstances) than tobacco. What has been lacking is research into how exposure to marijuana smoke affects cardiovascular health. It has been difficult to do such experiments because marijuana is illegal in the eyes of the federal government. However, we have been studying the harmful effects of secondhand tobacco smoke on the function of rat blood vessels, which is similar to its harmful effects on human blood vessels, and we now have studied how the function of rat blood vessels is affected by exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke. (more…)
Author Interviews, Immunotherapy, Pulmonary Disease / 20.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ganesh Raghu, M.D. FACP, FCCP Professor of Medicine Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Director of Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases Director, Interstitial Lung Disease/Sarcoid/Pulmonary Fibrosis Program University of Washington Medical Center Seattle, Washington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This is a new post-hoc analysis of the Phase III INPULSIS trials, including a total of 1,061 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which has been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. As background, achieving an accurate diagnosis of IPF in clinical practice is very complex and challenging. Physicians use an imaging technique called high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) to help them identify the presence of scarring (fibrosis) and, specifically, the presence of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern in the lungs. The radiological changes called "honeycombing" are the key feature of the UIP pattern visible on HRCT and the pattern of UIP is the hallmark of the fibrosis in patients with IPF. In the absence of definitive UIP pattern on HRCT images of the lungs, the diagnosis of  idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis requires the microscopic features of UIP in the surgical lung biopsy (SLB) based on current guidelines for diagnosis of IPF. However, it can be challenging to confirm that scarring in the absence of honeycombing on HRCT meets the strict guideline criteria for a definitive diagnosis of IPF. For a large group of patients who do not receive a confirmed diagnosis of IPF according to guidelines, including those not eligible for surgical lung biopsy, the clinical course of their condition and the effectiveness of  idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment remains unknown. Therefore, investigations into the behavior of the disease across diagnostic subgroups are important. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, Microbiome, Pulmonary Disease / 06.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Genevieve Marchand Ph.D., RMCCM SCCM(Env) Microbiologiste agréée & Biochimiste Chercheure, Prévention des risques chimiques et biologiques IRSST MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: It is well known that Health Care Workers (HCWs) are at risk of occupationally acquired infections. Some procedures, such as bronchoscopies, are recognized to be high-risk tasks. Most researches that have linked infectious risk to specific task in healthcare settings did not measure the real bioaerosol exposure. Those link where mostly made from epidemiology observations. The aim of this study was to qualify and quantify the real bioaerosol concentrations found during bronchoscopy procedures in order to estimate the true occupational risk. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, CHEST, Pulmonary Disease / 12.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stefania I. Papatheodorou, MD, PhD Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health Limassol, Cyprus MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Despite increasing use and acceptance of marijuana, both medically and recreationally, gaps remain in our knowledge regarding potential health effects. In this study, we aimed to evaluate associations between recent marijuana use, exhaled Nitric Oxide (eNO) and pulmonary function. We performed a cross-sectional study of 10,327 US adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the years 2007 to 2012. Exhaled Nitric Oxide was lower among participants who used marijuana in the past 0 to 4 days and those who last used marijuana 5 to 30 days before the examination compared with the never users. FEV1 was higher among participants who used marijuana within 0 to 4 days before the examination compared with those who never used marijuana, while FVC was higher in both past and current marijuana users compared with never users. The FEV1/FVC ratio was significantly lower among those who used marijuana in the 0 to 4 days before the examination compared with never users. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pulmonary Disease / 01.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof Michael Kreuter Center for Interstitial and Rare Lung Diseases, Pneumology and Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Thoraxklinik, University of Heidelberg and Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Prof. Kreuter: Already in the 70s, early reports hypothesized a relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Since then, clinical and preclinical data suggested that micro-aspirations cause lung parenchymal injuries which may stimulate pulmonary fibrosis. The hypothesis of a potential relationship between idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF_ and GERD also provoked the question of an effect of GERD-treatment by antacid therapy (i.e. proton pump inhibitors or H2-blockers) on the course of IPF.  In this context, two analyses, one retrospective and one post hoc, reported that antacid treatment had positive effects on the course of pulmonary function and on survival in IPF patients. These data lead to a conditional recommendation for the treatment of patients with IPF with antacid therapy in the current international IPF guideline. However, the low confidence in estimates of the effect prompted us to initiate a new post-hoc analysis pooling data from the placebo arms of three multinational trials on pirfenidone in interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. In this new analysis, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, antacid therapy was not associated with a slower disease progression in IPF. Moreover, in patients with advanced disease antacid therapy was associated with a significantly higher incidence of pulmonary and non-pulmonary infections. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pulmonary Disease / 01.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with – Professor Luca Richeldi University Hospital, Southampton Southampton, UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Prof. Richeldi: The pooled analysis published in Respiratory Medicine is based on Ofev (nintedanib) data from the Phase II TOMORROW trial and the two Phase III INPULSIS studies, and a total of 1,231 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), 723 of whom were treated with Ofev. The results of this analysis confirm that Ofev significantly slows disease progression by approximately 50%, as measured by decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) across a range of patient types in the clinical trial program. In addition, the analysis confirms that Ofev reduces the risk of acute exacerbations by approximately 50% and has a favorable effect across mortality outcomes with a trend in lower all-cause mortality and a significant lower on-treatment-mortality. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Disease, Tobacco Research / 24.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. med. Julia Dratva, MD MPH          Medical Specialist Prevention and Public Health FMH  Scientific project leader MAS Versicherungsmedizin/Studienkoordinationleitung Dept. Epidemiology and Public Health Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute Socinstrasse 57, P.O. Box, 4002 Basel, Switzerland Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Dratva: Early childhood is a critical time window for subsequent health. Early life environment is known to be important for lung development and respiratory health. Little is known on the potential impact on lung ageing and the potential mechanisms responsible for the long-term impact. We investigated early childhood factors and their association with lung function decline, a common marker of lung aging, in two long-standing adult cohorts, SAPALDIA and ECRHS. As recently published in scientific journal PlosONE, maternal smoking, early respiratory infections or season of birth are associated with a faster decline in lung function decline, while less rapid decline was found in persons who had attended daycare. The early exposures may not only have an independent adverse effect on lung aging but also increase the respiratory vulnerability to other adult risk factors. Stronger effects were observed in in smokers exposed to the aforementioned adverse factors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Frailty, Mayo Clinic, Pulmonary Disease, Transplantation / 23.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cassie Kennedy, M.D. Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine Mayo Clinic  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Kennedy: Lung transplant is a surgical procedure that can offer extended life expectancy and improved quality of life to selected patients with end-stage lung disease. However there are about 1700 patients awaiting lung transplant at any given time in the United States because transplant recipients far exceed potential donors.  In addition, even with carefully chosen candidates, lung transplant recipients live on average about 5.5 years.  It is therefore very important for transplant physicians to choose patients who will receive the most benefit from their lung transplant. Frailty (defined as an increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes) has typically been a subjective consideration by transplant physicians when choosing lung transplant candidates.  The emergence of more objective and reproducible frailty measures from the geriatric literature present an opportunity to study the prevalence of frailty in lung transplant (despite that subjective screening) and to determine whether the presence of frailty has any impact on patient outcomes. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Kennedy: Frailty is quite common --46 percent of our patient cohort was frail by the Frailty Deficit Index. We also saw a significant association between frailty and worsened survival following lung transplantation: one-year survival rate for frail patients was 71.7 percent, compared to 92.9 percent for patients who were not frail. At three years this difference in survival persisted--the survival rate for frail patients was 41.3 percent, compared to 66.1 percent for patients who were not frail. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pulmonary Disease / 12.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eric Stephen White MD Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Translational Interstitial Lung Disease Research, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine University of Michigan Health System Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. White: The data presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2015 provide additional insights into OFEV® (nintedanib), including safety and efficacy over approximately two years. The results show no relevant changes in the safety and tolerability of OFEV. The results also suggest that treatment has a long-term effect (approximately two years) on slowing disease progression across both pivotal and open-label trials (as measured by annual rate of forced vital capacity [FVC] decline). This ongoing study, INPULSIS™-ON, which is an open-label extension trial, is important because Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease that may require ongoing treatment. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Primary Care, Pulmonary Disease / 13.02.2014

Professor Chris van Weel Emeritus Professor of Family Medicine/General Practice Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Professor of Primary Health Care Research, Australian National University, Canberra Past President of WoncaMedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Professor Chris van Weel Emeritus Professor of Family Medicine/General Practice Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Professor of Primary Health Care Research, Australian National University, Canberra Background from Professor Chris van Weel Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your questions.  My paper was a commentary to the study of Jones and colleagues, Opportunities to diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in routine care in the UK: a retrospective study of a clinical cohort looking at the implications of the study findings. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Jones and colleagues reported that in the UK, there are many missed opportunities to diagnose COPD. My comments are that this is not a unique UK problem, but a universal one: under-diagnosis or late diagnosis of COPD is a universal problem in most if not all countries in the world. To understand it, it is important to analyse more in-depth the diagnostic challenge in primary care, for general practitioners(GP)/family physicians (FP). The paper of Jones highlights this diagnostic problem - symptoms of COPD are initially insidious and may fluctuate over time. And from my earlier research it is also clear that patients 'adept' their daily activities (less physical activities) and therefore may underplay or even become unaware of, their symptoms. At the same time, this is a problem for the physician, when encountering these symptoms. As I highlighted in my commentary, GPs/FPs have to pay attention to other possible diseases that might cause these symptoms: pneumonia, heart failure, lung cancer. The 'low key symptoms' and the need of applying a broad diagnostic scope together cause what Jones and his colleagues called the 'missed opportunities' to diagnose COPD. (more…)