The cross-cultural validation of the English version of RhinAsthma patient's perspective (RAPP).

No validated instrument is currently available in English for use in daily practice to assess Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in asthma and comorbid allergic rhinitis (AR). The aim of this study was to validate and assess the psychometric characteristics of an English language version of RhinAsthma Patient Perspective (RAPP).: The study was performed in the Philippines.

Chronic obstructive lung disease "expert system": validation of a predictive tool for assisting diagnosis.

Purpose: The purposes of this study were development and validation of an expert system (ES) aimed at supporting the diagnosis of chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD).

Methods: A questionnaire and a WebFlex code were developed and validated in silico. An expert panel pilot validation on 60 cases and a clinical validation on 241 cases were performed.

Patient-reported outcomes in asthma clinical trials.

Purpose Of Review: The review provides an overview of the results of asthma clinical trials published in peer review journals in the last 18 months that evaluated patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

Recent Findings: In the last 10 years, health care moved toward a patient-centered approach, which includes patients' perspectives reflecting the impact of a disease and its treatment.

Summary: Surprisingly, among the almost 300 clinical trials published in the last one and a half year, PRO evaluation was performed in only 20 studies, and none of them held in a real-life setting.

Withdrawal of inhaled corticosteroids in COPD: A meta-analysis.

Background: Conflicting findings exist on the benefit of withdrawal of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We performed a quantitative synthesis in order to assess real impact of ICS discontinuation in COPD patients.

Methods: We carried out a meta-analysis via random-effects model on the available clinical evidence to evaluate the effect of ICS discontinuation in COPD.

High flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy, work in progress in respiratory critical care.

After a planned extubation, the re-occurrence of acute respiratory distress needing the restoration of invasive mechanical support is a severe phenomenon associated with several important consequences, including increased morbidity, Intensive Care Unit mortality, and an enormous financial burden. So far, the most commonly used techniques to ameliorate gas exchange in the postextubation period were low-flow oxygen therapy and non-invasive ventilation (NIV). High flows through nasal cannulae (HFNC) is a system which allows increased CO2 wash-out of anatomical dead space, positive nasopharyngeal pressure, a relatively constant FiO2, and an improvement of mucociliary function.