Best of CHEST: Updates in asthma, COPD, bronchoscopy and more
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This year’s CHEST Annual Meeting, held from Oct. 19 to 23 in New Orleans, highlighted important research and issues in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.
The Editors of Healio Pulmonology present the best of CHEST — a list of the most popular articles from this year’s meeting. See below for links to a discussion of the outbreak of electronic cigarette or vaping-associated lung injuries, solutions to reduce bias in health care and important research on treatments for asthma and COPD.
More highlights from the meeting can also be found here.
Vaping-related lung injury outbreak spotlighted at CHEST
As the number of cases of lung injury associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping, continues to grow, pulmonologists and public health officials are shining a spotlight on the disease, its presentation and ongoing efforts to target the cause. Read more
Everyday solutions to reduce implicit bias in health care
Unconscious biases remain pervasive in everyday interactions between health care providers and patients and lead to worse outcomes for racial and gender minority populations, but several concrete actions can reduce or neutralize such tendencies, Quinn Capers IV, MD, FACC, FSCAI, said during a keynote address. Read more
Inhaler formulary changes may worsen asthma control in children
Switching inhaler types due to insurance formulary changes may lead to reduced lung function in children with asthma, according to recent data. Read more
Robotic bronchoscopy improves diagnostic yield for peripheral pulmonary nodules
When compared with existing technologies, robotic bronchoscopy increased the ability to localize and successfully puncture small peripheral pulmonary nodules, researchers reported. Read more
Physicians, patients may overestimate asthma control
New data demonstrate that physicians and patients with severe asthma frequently overestimated asthma control, suggesting a need for routine use of measures to better inform assessments of control and optimize management. Read more
Bronchodilator testing may prevent COPD overdiagnosis
Use of spirometry with bronchodilator testing can help reduce overdiagnosis of COPD as well as help differentiate COPD from asthma and asthma-COPD overlap syndrome, researchers reported. Read more
Dupilumab benefit persists regardless of age at asthma onset
In a post hoc analysis of the LIBERTY ASTHMA QUEST study, treatment with dupilumab reduced severe exacerbations and improved lung function regardless of early or late onset of asthma. Read more
Digital inhaler provides insights on uncontrolled asthma, impending exacerbations
Usage patterns collected by a digital inhaler suggest that even patients without asthma exacerbations have a high burden of rescue inhaler use and may require additional therapy based on current guidelines, according to study results. Read more
Triple combination COPD therapy beneficial in patients without exacerbation history
A subgroup analysis of the KRONOS study showed the reduction in COPD exacerbations observed with the triple fixed-dose combination budesonide/glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate metered-dose inhaler, as compared with a dual bronchodilator, was not driven by patients with a history of prior exacerbations. Read more
Beta-blocker fails to prevent COPD exacerbations
In patients with moderate to severe COPD without an established indication for beta-blocker use, treatment with metoprolol did not reduce the risk for exacerbations compared with treatment with placebo, results from the BLOCK COPD trial suggest. Read more