Assessment of breath volatile organic compounds in acute cardiorespiratory breathlessness: a protocol describing a prospective real-world observational study.

Introduction: Patients presenting with acute undifferentiated breathlessness are commonly encountered in admissions units across the UK. Existing blood biomarkers have clinical utility in distinguishing patients with single organ pathologies but have poor discriminatory power in multifactorial presentations. Evaluation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath offers the potential to develop biomarkers of disease states that underpin acute cardiorespiratory breathlessness, owing to their proximity to the cardiorespiratory system.

Fevipiprant in the treatment of asthma.

Asthma is common and in many, particularly those with more severe disease, there remains a substantial unmet need. Success with biologics targeting eosinophilic inflammation underscore the value of treating inflammation in asthma beyond corticosteroids. Fevipiprant (QAW039) is an oral treatment for asthma.

Risk Factors for Nonadherence to Antihypertensive Treatment.

Nonadherence to antihypertensive treatment is a critical contributor to suboptimal blood pressure control. There are limited and heterogeneous data on the risk factors for nonadherence because few studies used objective-direct diagnostic methods. We used high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry of urine and serum to detect nonadherence and explored its association with the main demographic- and therapy-related factors in 1348 patients with hypertension from 2 European countries.

High rates of non-adherence to antihypertensive treatment revealed by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HP LC-MS/MS) urine analysis.

Objectives: Non-adherence to therapy is an important cause of suboptimal blood pressure control but few practical tools exist to accurately and routinely detect it. We used a simple urine-based assay to evaluate the prevalence of antihypertensive treatment non-adherence and its impact on blood pressure in a specialist hypertension centre.

Methods: 208 hypertensive patients (125 new referrals, 66 follow-up patients with inadequate blood pressure control and 17 renal denervation referrals) underwent assessment of antihypertensive drug intake using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HP LC-MS/MS) urine analysis at the time of clinical appointment.