Long-Term Mechanical Ventilation: Recommendations of the Swiss Society of Pulmonology.

Long-term mechanical ventilation is a well-established treatment for chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (CHRF). It is aimed at improving CHRF-related symptoms, health-related quality of life, survival, and decreasing hospital admissions. In Switzerland, long-term mechanical ventilation has been increasingly used since the 1980s in hospital and home care settings.

[Pulmonary rehabilitation - a modern and patient-centred treatment approach in COPD].

Physical exercise is highly effective to improve exercise capacity and quality of life of patients with COPD and to reduce the risk for hospital admissions in patients with exacerbations.The combination of physical exercise,patient education and pharmacotherapy,as typically performed during pulmonary rehabilitation, has become the modern disease management for COPD patients. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of evidence on effective treatments to increase levels of physical activity.

Accuracy of the piko-1 pocket spirometer.

Background: Good asthma control is the main goal of long-term asthma treatment. According to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines (www.ginasthma.

Early versus late pulmonary rehabilitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with acute exacerbations: a randomized trial.

Background: Around the world, the timing of referral of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients for pulmonary rehabilitation differs from immediately after exacerbation (early) to later on when patients are in a stable state (late). There are no trials comparing the different time points of referral for pulmonary rehabilitation.

Objectives: Our aim was to compare the effects of early and late pulmonary rehabilitation on exacerbation rates and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in COPD patients with exacerbations.

A single dose of Sildenafil does not enhance FeNO: a randomised, cross-over and placebo-controlled study.

Monitoring of asthma control can be performed with different means including measurement of the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) in exhaled air. Due to its action on the NO-metabolism; we hypothesized that the intake of Sildenafil might augment and falsify the NO-values in exhaled air of subjects taking the drug to treat erectile dysfunction. This randomised, placebo-controlled cross-over study including 10 male non-asthmatic volunteers taking a single dose of 50 mg Sildenafil did not confirm this assumption in non-asthmatic subjects.

Recruitment barriers in a randomized controlled trial from the physicians' perspective: a postal survey.

Background: The feasibility of randomized trials often depends on successful patient recruitment. Although numerous recruitment barriers have been identified it is unclear which of them complicate recruitment most. Also, most surveys have focused on the patients' perspective of recruitment barriers whereas the perspective of recruiting physicians has received less attention.

Improvements in PM10 exposure and reduced rates of respiratory symptoms in a cohort of Swiss adults (SAPALDIA).

Rationale: Reductions in mortality following improvements in air quality were documented by several studies, and our group found, in an earlier analysis, that decreasing particulate levels attenuate lung function decline in adults.

Objectives: We investigated whether decreases in particulates with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10 microm (PM10) were associated with lower rates of reporting respiratory symptoms (i.e.

Pulmonary rehabilitation in Switzerland.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a form of therapy for patients with chronic lung disease that is evidence based, which ameliorates performance and endurance of the patient and improves quality of life significantly. Pulmonary rehabilitation also diminishes the amount of hospitalisations and the duration of stay in hospitals. It can improve capacity of work and diminishes the absenteeism.