Basic Bronchoscopy Competence Achieved by a Nationwide One-day Simulation-based Training.

Background: In 2020, a mandatory, nationwide 1-day bronchoscopy simulation-based training (SBT) course was implemented for novice pulmonology residents in the Netherlands. This pretest-posttest study was the first to evaluate the effectiveness of such a nationwide course in improving residents' simulated basic bronchoscopy skills.

Methods: After passing a theoretical test, residents followed a 1-day SBT course, available in 7 centers, where they practiced their bronchoscopy skills step-by-step on a virtual reality simulator under pulmonologist supervision.

Whole blood transcriptome in long-COVID patients reveals association with lung function and immune response.

Background: Months after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, at least 10% of patients still experience complaints. Long-COVID (coronavirus disease 2019) is a heterogeneous disease, and clustering efforts revealed multiple phenotypes on a clinical level. However, the molecular pathways underlying long-COVID phenotypes are still poorly understood.

Long COVID exhibits clinically distinct phenotypes at 3-6 months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection: results from the P4O2 consortium.

Background: Four months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, 22%-50% of COVID-19 patients still experience complaints. Long COVID is a heterogeneous disease and finding subtypes could aid in optimising and developing treatment for the individual patient.

Methods: Data were collected from 95 patients in the P4O2 COVID-19 cohort at 3-6 months after infection.

Precision Medicine for More Oxygen (P4O2)-Study Design and First Results of the Long COVID-19 Extension.

: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the death of almost 7 million people, however, with a cumulative incidence of 0.76 billion, most people survive COVID-19. Several studies indicate that the acute phase of COVID-19 may be followed by persistent symptoms including fatigue, dyspnea, headache, musculoskeletal symptoms, and pulmonary functional-and radiological abnormalities.

Ex vivo innate responses to particulate matter from livestock farms in asthma patients and healthy individuals.

Background: Asthma patients suffer from periodic acute worsening of symptoms (i.e. loss of asthma control or exacerbations), triggered by a variety of exogenous stimuli.

Corticosteroid Withdrawal-Induced Loss of Control in Mild to Moderate Asthma Is Independent of Classic Granulocyte Activation.

Background: Loss of asthma control and asthma exacerbations are associated with increased sputum eosinophil counts. However, whether eosinophils, or the also present neutrophils, actively contribute to the accompanying inflammation has not been extensively investigated.

Methods: Twenty-three patients with mild to moderate asthma were included in a standardized prospective inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) withdrawal study; 22 of the patients experienced loss of asthma control.

Rhinovirus-16 induced temporal interferon responses in nasal epithelium links with viral clearance and symptoms.

Background: The temporal in vivo response of epithelial cells to a viral challenge and its association with viral clearance and clinical outcomes has been largely unexplored in asthma.

Objective: To determine gene expression profiles over time in nasal epithelial cells (NECs) challenged in vivo with rhinovirus-16 (RV16) and compare to nasal symptoms and viral clearance.

Methods: Patients with stable mild to moderate asthma (n = 20) were challenged intranasally with RV16.

Anti-IL-5 in Mild Asthma Alters Rhinovirus-induced Macrophage, B-Cell, and Neutrophil Responses (MATERIAL). A Placebo-controlled, Double-Blind Study.

Rationale: Eosinophils drive pathophysiology in stable and exacerbating eosinophilic asthma, and therefore treatment is focused on the reduction of eosinophil numbers. Mepolizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that neutralizes IL-5 and efficiently attenuates eosinophils, proved clinically effective in severe eosinophilic asthma but not in mild asthma.

Objectives: To study the effect of mepolizumab on virus-induced immune responses in mild asthma.

Evaluation of coagulation activation after rhinovirus infection in patients with asthma and healthy control subjects: an observational study.

Background: Asthma exacerbations are frequently triggered by rhinovirus infections. Both asthma and respiratory tract infection can activate haemostasis. Therefore we hypothesized that experimental rhinovirus-16 infection and asthmatic airway inflammation act in synergy on the haemostatic balance.

Systemic tryptophan and kynurenine catabolite levels relate to severity of rhinovirus-induced asthma exacerbation: a prospective study with a parallel-group design.

Background: Patients with allergic asthma have exacerbations which are frequently caused by rhinovirus infection. The antiviral tryptophan-catabolising enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is induced by interferon-γ and suppressed by Th2 mediators interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13. We hypothesised that local IDO activity after viral airway infection is lower in patients with allergic asthma than in healthy controls.

Repeatability of inflammatory parameters in induced sputum of COPD patients.

Rationale: Limited information is available on repeatability of inflammatory parameters in whole induced sputum samples from patients with COPD.

Objectives: To study short-term and long-term repeatability in induced sputum samples in 22 patients with moderate to severe, stable COPD (mean age 64 yr, mean FEV(1) 1.91 L=65% of predicted).