Bronchiectasis in renal transplant patients: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Bronchiectasis is a chronic airway disease characterized by permanent and irreversible abnormal dilatation of bronchi. Several studies have reported the development of bronchiectasis after renal transplantation (RT), but no prospective study specifically assessed bronchiectasis in this population. This study aimed to compare features of patients with bronchiectasis associated with RT to those with idiopathic bronchiectasis.

French practical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis - 2021 update. Full-length version.

Background: Since the latest 2017 French guidelines, knowledge about idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has evolved considerably.

Methods: Practical guidelines were drafted on the initiative of the Coordinating Reference Center for Rare Pulmonary Diseases, led by the French Language Pulmonology Society (SPLF), by a coordinating group, a writing group, and a review group, with the involvement of the entire OrphaLung network, pulmonologists practicing in various settings, radiologists, pathologists, a general practitioner, a health manager, and a patient association. The method followed the "Clinical Practice Guidelines" process of the French National Authority for Health (HAS), including an online vote using a Likert scale.

Dismal Survival in COVID-19 Patients Requiring ECMO as Rescue Therapy after Corticosteroid Failure.

Background: COVID-19 may lead to refractory hypoxemia requiring venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Survival rate if ECMO is implemented as rescue therapy after corticosteroid failure is unknown. We aimed to investigate if ECMO implemented after failure of the full-recommended 10-day corticosteroid course can improve outcome.

Identifying specific needs in adult cystic fibrosis patients: a pilot study using a custom questionnaire.

Background: Adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) experience daily physical symptoms and disabilities that can be challenging to address for health care teams.

Methods: We sought to identify the most frequent topics that CF adults need to discuss with health care teams using a custom questionnaire including 62 items.

Results: Fifty patients were included, 70% men, mean age 27.

Burden and Characteristics of Severe Chronic Hypoxemia in a Real-World Cohort of Subjects with COPD.

Background: Chronic respiratory failure may occur as a consequence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Hypoxemia is determined by underlying disease characteristics and comorbidities. Severe hypoxemia is typically only found in subjects with severe airflow obstruction (FEV<50% predicted).

Impact of Silicone Stent Placement in Symptomatic Airway Obstruction due to Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer - A French Multicenter Randomized Controlled Study: The SPOC Trial.

Background: Therapeutic bronchoscopy (TB) is an accepted strategy for the symptomatic management of central airway malignant obstruction. Stent insertion is recommended in case of extrinsic compression, but its value in preventing airway re-obstruction after endobronchial treatment without extrinsic compression is unknown.

Objective: Silicone stent Placement in symptomatic airway Obstruction due to non-small cell lung Cancer (SPOC) is the first randomized controlled trial investigating the potential benefit of silicone stent insertion after successful TB in symptomatic malignant airway obstruction without extrinsic compression.

Dual versus triple therapy in patients hospitalized for COPD in France: a claims data study.

Purposes: Following a hospitalization for COPD, dual and triple therapies were compared in terms of persistence and relations with outcomes (exacerbations, health care resource use and costs).

Methods: This was a historical observational database study. All patients aged ≥45 hospitalized for COPD between 2007 and 2015 were identified in a 1/97 random sample of French claims data.

Relationship between gender and survival in a real-life cohort of patients with COPD.

Background: Although COPD affects both men and women, its prevalence is increasing more rapidly in women. Disease outcomes appear different among women with more frequent dyspnea and anxiety or depression but whether this translates into a different prognosis remains to be determined. Our aim was to assess whether the greater clinical impact of COPD in women was associated with differences in 3-year mortality rates.

Prevalence and management of chronic breathlessness in COPD in a tertiary care center.

Background: Breathlessness is the prominent symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Despite optimal therapeutic management including pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, many COPD patients exhibit significant breathlessness. Chronic breathlessness is defined as breathlessness that persists despite optimal treatment of the underlying disease.

Clinical and economic burden of severe asthma: A French cohort study.

Objective: To describe the clinical and economic burden of severe asthma in France over 12 months.

Methods: Data were retrieved from the observational, prospective "Cohorte Obstruction Bronchique et Asthme" (COBRA) cohort, which has enrolled nearly 1000 asthma patients since 2007 from throughout France. Patients undergoing treatment with GINA step-4 or 5 medications uninterruptedly for 12 months (thus defining "severe asthma") were identified and their clinical data used to describe the clinical burden of asthma (exacerbations, symptoms outside exacerbations, and level of asthma control).

Relationship between blood eosinophils, clinical characteristics, and mortality in patients with COPD.

In patients with COPD, there is controversy regarding the association of blood eosinophil (Eos) levels with 1) exacerbation frequency and 2) the effect of inhaled corticosteroids for prevention of exacerbations. To determine whether Eos define subgroups of patients exhibiting attributes of COPD clinical phenotypes, we compared clinical features and mortality rates in COPD patients from the Initiatives BPCO French cohort categorized using different thresholds of blood Eos levels. The following data were collected at inclusion: medical and smoking history, occupational exposures, dyspnea, cough and sputum production, exacerbations in the previous year, history of allergy and asthma, nasal symptoms, body mass index, St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) total score, post-bronchodilator spirometry, comorbidities, and medications.

An update on bacterial brain abscess in immunocompetent patients.

Background: A brain abscess is a focal infection of the brain that begins as a localized area of cerebritis. In immunocompetent patients, bacteria are responsible for >95% of brain abscesses, and enter the brain either through contiguous spread following otitis, sinusitis, neurosurgery, or cranial trauma, or through haematogenous dissemination.

Aims: To identify recent advances in the field.

Raman-based detection of hydroxyethyl starch in kidney allograft biopsies as a potential marker of allograft quality in kidney transplant recipients.

In brain-dead donor resuscitation, hydroxyethyl starch (HES) use has been associated with presence of osmotic-nephrosis-like lesions in kidney transplant recipients. Our aim was to determine whether the presence of HES in protocol renal graft biopsies at three months (M3) after transplantation is associated with renal graft quality. According to the HES administered to the donor during the procurement procedure, two groups of patients were defined according graft exposition to HES: HES group, (N = 20) and control group (N = 6).

Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) vs 'pure' COPD: a distinct phenotype?

Background: Some studies suggest that asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) is associated with worse outcomes than chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The goal of this study was to further explore the clinical characteristics and survival of patients with ACOS identified in a real-life cohort of patients with COPD.

Methods: Data from the French COPD cohort 'INITIATIVES BronchoPneumopathie Chronique Obstructive' (n = 998 patients) were analyzed to assess the frequency of ACOS defined as a physician diagnosis of asthma before the age of 40 years and to analyze its impact.

Clinicopathologic characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis syndrome in adults: A national retrospective strobe-compliant study.

Tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis (TINU) syndrome is a rare disease, defined by the association of idiopathic acute TINU. The aim of our work was to determine the characteristics of adult TINU syndrome in France, and to assess factors (including treatment) influencing medium-term prognosis.We conducted a nationwide study including 20 French hospitals.

Cavernous sinus thrombosis secondary to aspergillus granuloma: A case report and review of the literature.

Cavernous sinus thrombosis is a rare but serious complication of sphenoid aspergillosis. The rarity of this pathology makes its diagnostic very difficult on a clinical, biological and radiological sense. The authors present a case of cavernous sinus thrombosis with ipsilateral internal carotid artery thrombosis secondary to a non-invasive sphenoid aspergillosis in an immunocompetent host, responsible of a cavernous syndrome associated to a Claude Bernard Horner syndrome.

Odontoid fractures anterior screw fixation: a continuous series of 36 cases.

Introduction: Fracture of the odontoid process represents 5 to 15% of cervical spine fractures. Anterior screw fixation is the reference technique in unstable posterior oblique or horizontal odontoid fracture.

Objective: We describe results with an original anterior screw fixation technique using a curved thoraco-lumbar pedicle awl to facilitate intra-operative reduction.