The effectiveness of glucocorticoid treatment in post-COVID-19 pulmonary involvement.

Rationale: Persistent respiratory symptoms following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are associated with residual radiological changes in lung parenchyma, with a risk of development into lung fibrosis, and with impaired pulmonary function. Previous studies hinted at the possible efficacy of corticosteroids (CS) in facilitating the resolution of post-COVID residual changes in the lungs, but the available data is limited.

Aim: To evaluate the effects of CS treatment in post-COVID respiratory syndrome patients.

[Respiratory manifestations of post-COVID syndrome].

Overcoming infection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to the persistence of various symptoms in some patients. The complex of symptoms causally related to severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 infection is called post-COVID syndrome. One of the most common respiratory complications is pulmonary fibrosis, especially after critical course of the disease.

Pupillography in contemporary sleep medicine - A narrative review.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a common symptom of sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, and hypersomnia. The most common tools for assessing EDS are various specialized questionnaires such as Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS). However, the scores obtained from self-rating questionnaires do not seem to measure physiological sleepiness but rather a more complex phenomenon of subjective sleepiness modulated by other factors such as motivation, expectation, and capability of self-perception.

Cognitive Functions, Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms After One Year of CPAP Treatment in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Objective: The study worked with depressive symptoms, anxiety score and cognitive functions in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients treated with CPAP.

Methods: Eighty-one subjects with OSA and without psychiatric comorbidity were treated with CPAP for one year and completed the following scales and cognitive tests: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, d2 Test, Beck Depression Inventory-II and Beck Anxiety Inventory. MINI ruled out psychiatric disorder.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Patients Needing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Following a Critical Course of COVID-19.

Introduction: Severe respiratory failure is one of the most serious complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In a small proportion of patients, mechanical ventilation fails to provide adequate oxygenation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is needed. The surviving individuals need long-term follow-up as it is not clear what their prognosis is.

Patient-centered digital biomarkers for allergic respiratory diseases and asthma: The ARIA-EAACI approach - ARIA-EAACI Task Force Report.

Biomarkers for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients with rhinitis and/or asthma are urgently needed. Although some biologic biomarkers exist in specialist care for asthma, they cannot be largely used in primary care. There are no validated biomarkers in rhinitis or allergen immunotherapy (AIT) that can be used in clinical practice.

Post-COVID Syndrome and Cardiorespiratory Fitness-26-Month Experience of Single Center.

Introduction: Persistent post-COVID syndrome, also referred to as long COVID, is a pathologic entity that involves persistent physical, medical, and cognitive sequelae following COVID-19. Decreased fitness has repeatedly been reported in numerous studies dealing with post-COVID syndrome, however, it is still not fully clear which groups of patients may be more susceptible for persisting symptoms.

Aim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the number of post-COVID patients with cardiac symptoms, where these patients were evaluated by CPET and the results compared with a control group of patients.

The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the treatment of critical course of pneumonia.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is the highest form of resuscitation care in management of patients with respiratory failure. In the case of acute respiratory distress syndrome, the veno-venous setting is more often used. ECMO support enables, in case of lung function failure, to obtain the necessary time for the onset of the causal treatment effect or is used as a bridge to transplantation Mortality of the patients varies according to the underlying cause and presence of risk factors (e.

Prevalence of Burnout in Healthcare Workers of Tertiary-Care Hospitals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey from Two Central European Countries.

COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented strain on healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of burnout in hospital employees during a prolonged pandemic-induced burden on healthcare systems. An online survey among employees of a Czech and Slovak university hospital was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022, approximately when the incidence rates peaked in both countries.

Digitally-enabled, patient-centred care in rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity: The ARIA-MASK-air approach.

MASK-air , a validated mHealth app (Medical Device regulation Class IIa) has enabled large observational implementation studies in over 58,000 people with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma. It can help to address unmet patient needs in rhinitis and asthma care. MASK-air is a Good Practice of DG Santé on digitally-enabled, patient-centred care.

Screening for obstructive sleep apnoea in high-risk patients with mood disorders.

Objective: Our study aimed to screen for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in a clinical population of psychiatric patients with affective disorders and risk factors for OSA using screening devices in psychiatric clinical environments.

Methods: Inpatients admitted with mood disorders in an inpatient psychiatric department were selected via inclusion and exclusion criteria and assessed for the risk factors of OSA. The inclusion criteria were: a diagnosis of an affective disorder confirmed by two independent psychiatrists, snoring or apnoeic pauses witnessed during regular night check-ups by nurses, and BMI > 25 kg/m2.

Risk of Severe COVID-19 in Non-Adherent OSA Patients.

Background: Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are at increased risk of severe course of COVID-19. Vaccination remains to be the most effective prevention of complicated courses of infection. The best contemporary conservative treatment of OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.

Network Analysis for Uncovering the Relationship between Host Response and Clinical Factors to Virus Pathogen: Lessons from SARS-CoV-2.

Analysing complex datasets while maintaining the interpretability and explainability of outcomes for clinicians and patients is challenging, not only in viral infections. These datasets often include a variety of heterogeneous clinical, demographic, laboratory, and personal data, and it is not a single factor but a combination of multiple factors that contribute to patient characterisation and host response. Therefore, multivariate approaches are needed to analyse these complex patient datasets, which are impossible to analyse with univariate comparisons (e.

Consistent trajectories of rhinitis control and treatment in 16,177 weeks: The MASK-air® longitudinal study.

Introduction: Data from mHealth apps can provide valuable information on rhinitis control and treatment patterns. However, in MASK-air®, these data have only been analyzed cross-sectionally, without considering the changes of symptoms over time. We analyzed data from MASK-air® longitudinally, clustering weeks according to reported rhinitis symptoms.

[Chronic lung diseases and sleep].

Sleep is vitally important part of our life. Its quality and quantity influence all physiological processes in our organism. The relationship between the lung diseases and sleep is bidirectional - the lack of quality sleep worsens the compensation and the course of the diseases and in the same time chronic lung diseases are negatively affecting sleep quality.

[COVID-19 and post-COVID - Jekyll and Hyde of modern medicine].

COVID-19 pandemic has massive impact on the whole world, lead to the death of milions of people and required excessive restrictions with large economical, psychological and other impacts. Post-COVID syndrome is defined according to the Czech pneumological and phtizeological society as a complex of symptoms persisting for more than 12 weeks from the acute stage of COVID-19 and which is not possible to explain by other causes. Exact pathopysiological mechanisms and its frequency are still not known, and the data from the literature are not consisent.

Clinical presentation and pulmonary function tests in post-acute COVID-19 patients.

Aims: The study analysed post-acute COVID-19 symptoms and the pulmonary function test (PFT) results in patients surviving the native strain of the virus.

Methods: The study was prospective; the inclusion criteria were positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 and age 18-100. Exclusion criteria were active respiratory infection, known or suspicious pre-existing pulmonary disease, cardiac failure, recent or acute pulmonary embolism, anaemia, and neuromuscular diseases.

Comparison of rhinitis treatments using MASK-air® data and considering the minimal important difference.

Background: Different treatments exist for allergic rhinitis (AR), including pharmacotherapy and allergen immunotherapy (AIT), but they have not been compared using direct patient data (i.e., "real-world data").

Allergen immunotherapy in MASK-air users in real-life: Results of a Bayesian mixed-effects model.

Background: Evidence regarding the effectiveness of allergen immunotherapy (AIT) on allergic rhinitis has been provided mostly by randomised controlled trials, with little data from real-life studies.

Objective: To compare the reported control of allergic rhinitis symptoms in three groups of users of the MASK-air app: those receiving sublingual AIT (SLIT), those receiving subcutaneous AIT (SCIT), and those receiving no AIT.

Methods: We assessed the MASK-air data of European users with self-reported grass pollen allergy, comparing the data reported by patients receiving SLIT, SCIT and no AIT.

Behavioural patterns in allergic rhinitis medication in Europe: A study using MASK-air real-world data.

Background: Co-medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis-related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to assess AR co-medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real-world data.

Adherence of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients to positive airway pressure therapy - 10-year follow-up.

Purpose: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the most effective therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). Long-term adherence is necessary; however, it may be widely variable based on current literature, where the predicting factors are also not well defined. The aim of this study was to assess ten-year adherence to CPAP and to define factors influencing it.