Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex disorder with a high degree of interindividual variability. Gastrointestinal dysfunction is common in patients with COPD and has been proposed to influence the clinical progression of the disease. Using the presence of bile acid(s) (BA) in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid as a marker of gastric aspiration, we evaluated the relationships between BAs, clinical outcomes and bacterial lung colonisation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza vaccine effectiveness and immunogenicity can be compromised with repeated vaccination. We assessed immunological markers in a cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) from six public hospitals around Australia during 2020-2021. Sera were collected pre-vaccination and ~14 and ~ 180 days post-vaccination and assessed in haemagglutination inhibition assay against egg-grown vaccine and equivalent cell-grown viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Severe asthma is a heterogeneous disease with subtype classification according to dominant airway infiltrates, including eosinophilic (Type 2 high), or non-eosinophilic asthma. Non-eosinophilic asthma is further divided into paucigranulocytic or neutrophilic asthma characterized by elevated neutrophils, and mixed Type 1 and Type 17 cytokines in the airways. Severe non-eosinophilic asthma has few effective treatments and many patients do not qualify for biologic therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Inhaled corticosteroid/formoterol fumarate (ICS/FF) as needed is recommended by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) as sole therapy in adults with mild asthma, with low-dose maintenance ICS plus short-acting β-agonist (SABA) as an alternative. SABA alone is no longer recommended. Given these changes in recommendations, the observational PRIME study aimed to describe real-world treatment patterns in mild asthma in Europe.
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