MRI Compared with Low-Dose CT for Incidental Lung Nodule Detection in COPD: A Multicenter Trial.

Purpose: To investigate morphofunctional chest MRI for the detection and management of incidental pulmonary nodules in participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Materials And Methods: In this prospective study, 567 participants (mean age, 66 years ± 9 [SD]; 340 men) underwent same-day contrast-enhanced MRI and nonenhanced low-dose CT (LDCT) in a nationwide multicenter trial (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01245933).

Trends in COVID-19-associated mortality in patients with pulmonary hypertension: a COMPERA analysis.

https://bit.ly/42OMsfj

Predictive value of molecular matching tools for the development of donor specific HLA-antibodies in patients undergoing lung transplantation.

Molecular matching is a new approach for virtual histocompatibility testing in organ transplantation. The aim of our study was to analyze whether the risk for de novo donor-specific HLA antibodies (dnDSA) after lung transplantation (LTX) can be predicted by molecular matching algorithms (MMA) and their combination. In this retrospective study we included 183 patients undergoing LTX at our center from 2012-2020.

Concurrent/sequential versus sequential immune checkpoint inhibition in inoperable large stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy: a prospective observational study.

Purpose/aim: The international standard for patients with large inoperable stage III NSCLC is durvalumab consolidation after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT). In this single centre observational study based on individual data, we prospectively evaluated the role of concurrent/sequential versus sequential immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI).

Methods And Patients: In total, 39 stage III NSCLC patients were prospectively enrolled, 11 (28%) patients were treated with simultaneous and consolidation therapy with PD-1 inhibition (nivolumab) (SIM-cohort) and 28 (72%) patients received PD-L1 inhibition (durvalumab) as consolidation treatment up to 12 months after the end of CRT (SEQ-cohort).

Oral inflammation and exhaled nitric oxide fraction: a cross-sectional study.

https://bit.ly/3BhMP6f.

Financial toxicity in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy in a universal health care system - A prospective multicenter study of 1075 patients.

Purpose: To establish and confirm prevalence as well as risk factors of financial toxicity in a large national cohort of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy in a universal health care system.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study offering a patient-reported questionnaire to all eligible cancer patients treated with radiotherapy in 11 centers in Germany during 60 consecutive days. The four-point subjective financial distress question of the EORTC QLQ-C30 was used as a surrogate for financial toxicity.

Validation of the Asthma Severity Scoring System (ASSESS) in the ALLIANCE Cohort.

Background: The Asthma Severity Scoring System (ASSESS) quantifies asthma severity in adolescents and adults. Scale performance in children younger than 12 years is unknown.

Objective: To validate the ASSESS score in the All Age Asthma Cohort and explore its use in children younger than 12 years.

Five years after PACIFIC: update on multimodal treatment efficacy based on real-world reports.

Introduction: The growing body of real-life data on maintenance treatment with durvalumab suggests that immunological markers of the cancer host interplay may have significant effects on the efficacy of multimodal therapy in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC.

Areas Covered: We summarize real-world clinical data regarding this new tri-modal approach and report on potential biomarker landscape.

Expert Opinion: The obvious question posed in this context of a very heterogeneous inoperable stage III NSCLC disease is: How can we augment an ability to predict checkpoint inhibition success or failure? Which tools and biomarkers, which clinical metadata and genetic background are relevant and feasible? No single biomarker will ever fully dominate the unresectable stage III NSCLC space, so we advocate multilevel and multivariate analysis of biomarkers.

Standardized airway wall thickness Pi10 from routine CT scans of COPD patients as imaging biomarker for disease severity, lung function decline, and mortality.

Background: Chest computed tomography (CT) is increasingly used for phenotyping and monitoring of patients with COPD. The aim of this work was to evaluate the association of Pi10 as a measure of standardized airway wall thickness on CT with exacerbations, mortality, and response to triple therapy.

Methods: Patients of GOLD grades 1-4 of the COSYCONET cohort with prospective CT scans were included.

Comparison of the sensitivity of different criteria to select lung cancer patients for screening in a cohort of German patients.

Introduction: Trials of CT-based screening for lung cancer have shown a mortality advantage for screening in North America and Europe. Before introducing a nationwide lung cancer screening program in Germany, it is important to assess the criteria used in international trials in the German population.

Methods: We used data from 3623 lung cancer patients from the data warehouse of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL).

Quality Control of Nitrogen Multiple Breath Washout in a Multicenter Pediatric Asthma Study.

Background: Nitrogen multiple breath washout (N2MBW) is a lung function test increasingly used in small airway diseases. Quality criteria have not yet been globally implemented and time-consuming retrospective overreading is necessary. Little data has been published on children with recurrent wheeze or asthma from multicentered studies.

Does uptake of specialty care affect HRQoL development in COPD patients beneficially? A difference-in-difference analysis linking claims and survey data.

Background: There is an evidence gap on whether the choice of specialty care beneficially affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study analyzes how newly initiated pulmonologist care affects the generic and disease-specific HRQoL in COPD patients over a period of 1 year.

Methods: We linked claims data with data from two survey waves to investigate the longitudinal effect of specialty care on HRQoL using linear Difference-in-Difference models based on 1:3 propensity score matched data.

Lung Organoids for Hazard Assessment of Nanomaterials.

Lung epithelial organoids for the hazard assessment of inhaled nanomaterials offer a promising improvement to in vitro culture systems used so far. Organoids grow in three-dimensional (3D) spheres and can be derived from either induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) or primary lung tissue stem cells from either human or mouse. In this perspective we will highlight advantages and disadvantages of traditional culture systems frequently used for testing nanomaterials and compare them to lung epithelial organoids.

Cardiovascular predictors of mortality and exacerbations in patients with COPD.

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), comorbidities and worse functional status predict worse outcomes, but how these predictors compare with regard to different outcomes is not well studied. We thus compared the role of cardiovascular comorbidities for mortality and exacerbations. Data from baseline and up to four follow-up visits of the COSYCONET cohort were used.

[What have we learned from the German COPD cohort COSYCONET and where do we go from here?].

COSYCONET 1 is the only German COPD cohort which is large enough to be internationally comparable. The recruitment, which started in 2010 and ended in December 2013, comprised 2741 patients with the diagnosis of COPD who were subsequently investigated in regular follow-up visits. All visits included a comprehensive functional and clinical characterisation.

Differential Impact of Low Fat-Free Mass in People With COPD Based on BMI Classifications: Results From the COPD and Systemic Consequences-Comorbidities Network.

Background: Alterations in body composition, including a low fat-free mass index (FFMI), are common in patients with COPD and occur regardless of body weight.

Research Question: Is the impact of low FFMI on exercise capacity, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and systemic inflammation different among patients with COPD stratified in different BMI classifications?

Study Design And Methods: We analyzed baseline data of patients with COPD from the COPD and Systemic Consequences-Comorbidities Network (COSYCONET) cohort. Assessments included lung function, bioelectrical impedance analysis, 6-min walk distance (6MWD), HRQL, and inflammatory markers.

Trajectories of cough without a cold in early childhood and associations with atopic diseases.

Background: Although children can frequently experience a cough that affects their quality of life, few epidemiological studies have explored cough without a cold during childhood.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to describe the latent class trajectories of cough from one to 10 years old and analyse their association with wheezing, atopy and allergic diseases.

Methods: Questions about cough, wheeze and allergic diseases were asked at 1, 1.

Effect of experimental exposures to 3-D printer emissions on nasal allergen responses and lung diffusing capacity for inhaled carbon monoxide/nitric oxide in subjects with seasonal allergic rhinitis.

3-D printers are widely used. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that their emissions could enhance allergen responsiveness and reduce lung diffusing capacity. Using a cross-over design, 28 young subjects with seasonal allergic rhinitis were exposed to 3-D printer emissions, either from polylactic acid (PLA) or from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS), for 2 h each.

A new approach for the detection of obesity-related airway obstruction in lung-healthy individuals.

Background: Subjects with obesity show an increased prevalence of airway obstruction but it is not clear in each case whether this reflects genuine lung disease. Via intentional increase in end-expiratory lung volume we studied the detection of obesity-induced airway obstruction in lung-healthy obese subjects.

Methods: The primary study population comprised 66 lung-healthy obese subjects and 23 normal weight subjects.