Low patient engagement is associated with reduced health-related quality of life in adults with cyclic vomiting syndrome.

Introduction: Patient engagement, adaptation and self-management play a critical role in improving Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and reducing health care utilization in chronic disorders. There is no data on the level of patient engagement in patients with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS); we thus sought to determine their level of engagement and its association with clinical covariates.

Methods: The Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13), a validated tool that measures the degree of patient engagement in their health was administered prospectively to patients with CVS.

Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells-2 Expression Tracks With M2-Like Macrophage Activity and Disease Severity in COPD.

Background: Cell and animal models show a key role for Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells (TREM)-2 in chronic airway disease after viral infection, but comparable evidence in humans still needs to be established.

Methods: Lung tissue samples were obtained from lung transplant recipients with Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage IV COPD (n = 16), nontransplantable donor lung tissues (n = 7), and resected lung tissues from patients at risk or with GOLD stage I through IV (n = 55) and were assessed for TREM-2 and TREM-1 messenger RNA (mRNA), protein expression, and other markers of a type 2 immune response.

Results: TREM2 (but not TREM1) mRNA levels were increased in GOLD stage IV COPD lung tissues compared with non-COPD lung tissues.

Long-term IL-33-producing epithelial progenitor cells in chronic obstructive lung disease.

Chronic obstructive lung disease is characterized by persistent abnormalities in epithelial and immune cell function that are driven, at least in part, by infection. Analysis of parainfluenza virus infection in mice revealed an unexpected role for innate immune cells in IL-13-dependent chronic lung disease, but the upstream driver for the immune axis in this model and in humans with similar disease was undefined. We demonstrate here that lung levels of IL-33 are selectively increased in postviral mice with chronic obstructive lung disease and in humans with very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).