Publications by authors named "Vanessa McDonald"

Background And Objectives: Treatable trait-based personalised medicine improves outcomes in severe asthma clinics. We assessed the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of protocolised treatable trait-guided asthma management in patients not under a severe asthma clinic.

Methods: Ten week single-group cohort study.

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Introduction: Asthma and mental health problems co-occur at high rates. In context of a holistic approach to health, considering the extent to which social determinants relate to mental health in people with asthma helps identify health inequity and inform population-level preventative strategies. The aim of the current exploratory study was to examine how social determinants are associated with depression, anxiety and resilience in people with mild-moderate and severe asthma.

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Background: Sputum extracellular DNA (eDNA) is associated with disease severity in asthma and COPD and therefore emerging as a potential therapeutic target. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 10 days of recombinant human DNase (rhDNase) treatment of eDNA-high asthma and COPD on sputum eDNA levels, neutrophil-related inflammation, lung function and symptoms.

Methods: Adults with asthma (n=80) or COPD (n=66) were screened for the presence of high (>20 µg·mL) sputum eDNA and those eligible (n=18 asthma, n=17 COPD) were randomised to a two-period crossover controlled trial consisting of daily nebulised rhDNase (2.

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Purpose: Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are an effective treatment for severe uncontrolled asthma or asthma exacerbations, but frequent bursts or long-term use carry serious and sometimes irreversible adverse effects, or complications such as adrenal insufficiency upon discontinuation. Our aim was to survey people with asthma on their experiences of, and attitudes towards, using OCS.

Patients And Methods: This study was a national descriptive cross-sectional survey of people with asthma in Australia.

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Importance: The effectiveness of in-room air purification for the reduction of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in residential aged-care facilities (RACFs) is unknown.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of in-room air purifiers with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-14 filters in reducing the incidence of ARIs among residents of RACFs.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial used a multicenter, double-blind, 2-period, 2-treatment crossover design for 6 months from April 7 to October 26, 2023, in 3 RACFs with a bed capacity of 50 to 100 in New South Wales, Australia.

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Background: Mepolizumab can induce an early response and clinical remission in people with severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA).

Objective: To find whether early response to mepolizumab (100 mg) could predict future asthma remission and to identify the best predictor of treatment response to mepolizumab for achieving remission.

Methods: The Australian Mepolizumab Registry was used to investigate the early response to mepolizumab at 3 and 6 months and relate this to clinical remission at 12 months.

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People with severe asthma often lead sedentary lifestyles, which adversely affects overall health and asthma-specific outcomes. To inform future sedentary behaviour- interventions, this study aimed to explore perceptions of sedentary behaviour among people with severe asthma. Adults (≥ 18 years) with severe asthma (n = 21) participated in face-to-face interviews.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study involving 81 COPD patients evaluated the effectiveness of pharmacist-led home medicines review (HMR) aimed at improving treatable traits (TTs) over 6 and 12 months.
  • * Results showed significant improvements in health-related quality of life, anxiety, depression, smoking status, and medication adherence, indicating that pharmacist involvement can enhance COPD management in primary care settings.
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Background: Patients with severe eosinophilic asthma, characterised by a high disease burden, benefit from mepolizumab, which improves symptoms and reduces exacerbations, potentially leading to clinical remission in a subgroup. This study aimed to identify treatment response trajectories to mepolizumab for severe eosinophilic asthma and to assess the achievement of clinical remission.

Methods: Data from the Australian Mepolizumab Registry were used to assess treatment responses at 3, 6 and 12 months.

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Article Synopsis
  • Asthma presents various symptoms and issues that vary between patients, making it a complex condition that requires a tailored management strategy.
  • The Treatable Traits model of care focuses on identifying specific traits in various areas, like pulmonary health and comorbidities, which can be effectively treated using evidence-based therapies.
  • This model encourages collaboration between clinicians and patients to create personalized management plans, leading to better asthma control and improved quality of life, with potential applications in other health conditions as well.
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Perinatal depression (PND) affects up to 20% of women and is associated with significant impairment and disability in affected women. In addition, perinatal depression is associated with broader public health and multigenerational consequences. Innovative approaches are needed to reduce the burden of perinatal depression through identification, tracking, and treatment of depressive symptoms during the perinatal period.

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Introduction: Physical capacity is an important determinant of physical activity in people with obstructive airway disease (OAD). This study aimed to extend the "can do, do do" concept in people with OAD, to identify if people categorised into quadrants based on physical capacity and activity differ by clinical and movement behaviour characteristics.

Methods: A total of 281 participants (bronchiectasis n=60, severe asthma n=93, COPD n=70 and control n=58) completed assessments to characterise physical capacity as "can do" "can't do" (6-min walk distance < or ≥70% pred) and physical activity as "do do" "don't do" (accelerometer-derived moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) < or ≥150 min·week).

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Background: Breathlessness is a disabling symptom, with complexity that is often under-recognized and undertreated in asthma.

Objective: To highlight the burden of breathlessness in people with severe compared with mild-to-moderate asthma and identify psychophysiological correlates of breathlessness.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of people with mild-to-severe asthma, who attended 2 in-person visits to complete a multidimensional assessment.

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Rationale: Poor asthma control in pregnancy is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Treatable traits improve patient outcomes but the pattern and prevalence of treatable traits in pregnant women with asthma is unknown. Whether treatable traits in pregnant women with asthma can be identified a virtual care consult is also unknown.

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Background: Disabling symptoms of asthma including breathlessness, cough, wheeze and chest tightness largely impact quality of life; however, how these symptoms impact people with asthma of different severity levels remains unknown. This study aimed to compare and characterise patients' symptom experience and the burden caused, their quality of life, and the medication preferences of people with severe asthma against those of people with mild-to-moderate asthma.

Methods: This was a multisite qualitative study involving two focus groups and semistructured interviews of adults with severe asthma undertaken in Australia and UK.

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Rationale: Our understanding of airway dysbiosis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains incomplete, which may be improved by unraveling the complexity in microbial interactome.

Objectives: To characterize reproducible features of airway bacterial interactome in COPD at clinical stability and during exacerbation, and evaluate their associations with disease phenotypes.

Methods: We performed weighted ensemble-based co-occurrence network analysis of 1742 sputum microbiomes from published and new microbiome datasets, comprising two case-control studies of stable COPD versus healthy control, two studies of COPD stability versus exacerbation, and one study with exacerbation-recovery time series data.

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Background: Millions of people are exposed to landscape fire smoke (LFS) globally, and inhalation of LFS particulate matter (PM) is associated with poor respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. However, how LFS affects respiratory and cardiovascular function is less well understood.

Objective: We aimed to characterize the pathophysiologic effects of representative LFS airway exposure on respiratory and cardiac function and on asthma outcomes.

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Background: Asthma remission is a potential treatment goal.

Research Question: Does adding azithromycin to standard therapy in patients with persistent uncontrolled asthma induce remission compared with placebo?

Study Design And Methods: This secondary analysis used data from the Asthma and Macrolides: the Azithromycin Efficacy and Safety (AMAZES) clinical trial-a double-anonymized placebo-controlled trial that evaluated the safety and efficacy of azithromycin on asthma exacerbations. The primary remission definition (referred to as clinical remission) was zero exacerbations and zero oral corticosteroids during the previous 6 months evaluated at 12 months and a 5-item Asthma Control Questionnaire score ≤ 1 at 12 months.

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Introduction: Landscape fire smoke (LFS) contains several hazardous air pollutants that are known to be detrimental to human health. People with asthma are more vulnerable to the health impact of LFS than general populations. The aim of this review is to investigate the effectiveness of personal strategies to reduce the effect of LFS on asthma-related outcomes.

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Background: People with asthma may have skeletal muscle dysfunction but data describing core function in severe asthma are limited.

Objective: To compare core function between people with severe asthma and healthy controls and to determine the difference between males and females. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate the association between core function and breathing symptoms.

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