Home-based intravenous treatment with reslizumab for severe asthma in the Netherlands – An evaluation

The anti-IL-5 biologic reslizumab for the treatment of severe eosinophilic asthma is administered intravenously. In the current study home administration of intravenous reslizumab was evaluated in 24 patients included between 2019 (July) and 2020 (July). This is the first study to show that intravenous reslizumab can be administered safely and successfully in an outpatient setting. Notably, not all patients prefer home administration and severe asthma patients may have different needs when it comes to choosing treatment at home or in the hospital

Hemodynamic effects of dynamic exercise in children and adolescents with moderate-to-small ventricular septal defects

We studied the hemodynamic effects of dynamic exercise during cardiac catheterization in 35 children and adolescents with small-to-moderate ventricular septal defects. Eighteen of them exercised at 25% and 50% of their maximum workload and 17 exercised at 60%. There was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to age and body mass, height, and surface area. The changes evoked by exercise showed the same pattern at the different workloads, although they were more marked at the higher than at the lower percentage of maximum workload. During exercise the pulmonary vascular resistance did not change, in contrast to the systemic vascular resistance, which decreased. The pulmonary and systemic blood flows both increased, while the left-to-right shunt flow did not change, which led to a decrease of the left-to-right shunt fraction. As the heart rate increased and the shunt flow did not change, the shunt volume per beat decreased during exercise. We conclude that in patients with small-to-moderate ventricular septal defects the hemodynamic effects of dynamic exercise are favorable because the normal rise in systemic blood flow occurs without a corresponding increase in left-to-right shunt flow. Consequently, children and adolescents with such defects should not be restricted in their dynamic exercise activities

Vital memories : Movements in and between affect, ethics and self

The focus on the practice of remembering has been highly productive for memory studies, but it creates difficulties in understanding personal commitment to particular versions of the past. Autobiographical memories of difficult and distressing past episodes – or ‘vital memories’ – require extensive and ongoing management. We describe the issues that arise when vital memories are expressed across a range of specific interactional contexts. Seven themes – autobiography, agency, forgetting, ethics, affect, space and institutional practices – are discussed. Each theme draws out a particular facet of the relationship between the content and contexts of vital memories and demonstrates that while vital memories frame problematic experiences, they remain essential for those who express them