Lung transplantation benefits for terminal lung diseases

peer reviewedLung transplantation is an established treatment of pulmonary diseases at an advanced stage. The purpose of our study is to present the benefits, indications and complications of this surgical procedure in the CHU of Liege. The cohort includes 14 patients transplanted between 2005 and 2009, and who were inserted in a pulmonary rehabilitation programme at the university hospital of Liege. The criteria of assessment are the values of respiratory function tests at rest and exercise, and quality of life. Inherent complications related to this type of surgical operation have been collected. We found a dramatic improvement in pulmonary function tests performed at rest both immediately after the transplantation and after 6 months. Likewise exercise capacity was already increased shortly after the transplantation and further improved 6 months later. As for health related quality of life, parameters that improved the most were dyspnoea and global quality of life, and the improvement was already maximal immediately after the transplantation. Our retrospective study confirms the data of the literature, namely an improvement of respiratory function, effort capacity and quality of life after lung transplantation

Y a-t-il une place pour les β-bloquants dans les maladies pulmonaires obstructives ?

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Local and systemic cellular inflammation and cytokine release in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

peer reviewedBACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic airway inflammatory disease caused by repeated exposure to noxious gases or particles. It is now recognized that the disease also features systemic inflammation. The purpose of our study was to compare airway and systemic inflammation in COPD to that seen in healthy subjects and to relate the inflammation with the disease severity. METHODS: Ninety-five COPD patients, encompassing the whole severity spectrum of the disease, were recruited from our outpatient clinic and rehabilitation center and compared to 33 healthy subjects. Induced sputum and blood samples were obtained for measurement of inflammatory cell count. Interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma produced by 24h sputum and blood cell cultures were measured. RESULTS: Compared to healthy subjects, COPD exhibited a prominent airway neutrophilic inflammation associated with a marked IL-10, IL-6 and TNF-alpha release deficiency that contrasted with a raised IFN-gamma production. Neutrophilic inflammation was also prominent at blood level together with raised production of IFN-gamma, IL-10 and TNF-alpha. Furthermore, sputum neutrophilia correlated with disease severity assessed by GOLD stages. Likewise the extent of TNF-alpha release from blood cells also positively correlated with the disease severity but negatively with that of sputum cell culture. Blood release of TNF-alpha and IL-6 negatively correlated with body mass index. Altogether, our results showed a significant relationship between cellular marker in blood and sputum but poor relationship between local and systemic release of cytokines. CONCLUSIONS: COPD is characterized by prominent neutrophilic inflammation and raised IFN-gamma production at both bronchial and systemic level. Overproduction of TNF-alpha at systemic level correlates with disease severity and inversely with body mass index

Rehabilitation in patients with radically treated respiratory cancer: A randomised controlled trial comparing two training modalities.

INTRODUCTION: The evidence on the effectiveness of rehabilitation in lung cancer patients is limited. Whole body vibration (WBV) has been proposed as an alternative to conventional resistance training (CRT). METHODS: We investigated the effect of radical treatment (RT) and of two rehabilitation programmes in lung cancer patients. The primary endpoint was a change in 6-min walking distance (6MWD) after rehabilitation. Patients were randomised after RT to either CRT, WBVT or standard follow-up (CON). Patients were evaluated before, after RT and after 12 weeks of intervention. RESULTS: Of 121 included patients, 70 were randomised to either CON (24), CRT (24) or WBVT (22). After RT, 6MWD decreased with a mean of 38m (95% CI 22-54) and increased with a mean of 95m (95% CI 58-132) in CRT (p<0.0001), 37m (95% CI -1-76) in WBVT (p=0.06) and 1m (95% CI -34-36) in CON (p=0.95), respectively. Surgical treatment, magnitude of decrease in 6MWD by RT and allocation to either CRT or WBVT were prognostic for reaching the minimally clinically important difference of 54m increase in 6MWD after intervention. CONCLUSIONS: RT of lung cancer significantly impairs patients' exercise capacity. CRT significantly improves and restores functional exercise capacity, whereas WBVT does not fully substitute for CRT

Asthma and COPD Are Not Risk Factors for ICU Stay and Death in Case of SARS-CoV2 Infection

BACKGROUND: Asthmatics and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have more severe outcomes with viral infections than people without obstructive disease. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if obstructive diseases are risk factors for intensive care unit (ICU) stay and death due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). METHODS: We collected data from the electronic medical record from 596 adult patients hospitalized in University Hospital of Liege between March 18 and April 17, 2020, for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infection. We classified patients into 3 groups according to the underlying respiratory disease, present before the COVID19 pandemic. RESULTS: Among patients requiring hospitalization for COVID19, asthma and COPD accounted for 9.6% and 7.7%, respectively. The proportions of asthmatics, patients with COPD, and patients without obstructive airway disease hospitalized in the ICU were 17.5%, 19.6%, and 14%, respectively. One-third of patients with COPD died during hospitalization, whereas only 7.0% of asthmatics and 13.6% of patients without airway obstruction died due to SARS-CoV2. The multivariate analysis showed that asthma, COPD, inhaled corticosteroid treatment, and oral corticosteroid treatment were not independent risk factors for ICU admission or death. Male gender (odds ratio [OR]: 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-3.2) and obesity (OR: 8.5; 95% CI: 5.1-14.1) were predictors of ICU admission, whereas male gender (OR 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1-3.2), older age (OR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.6-2.3), cardiopathy (OR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.1-3.1), and immunosuppressive diseases (OR: 3.6; 95% CI: 1.5-8.4) were independent predictors of death. CONCLUSION: Asthma and COPD are not risk factors for ICU admission and death related to SARS-CoV2 infection

Physiopathology of respiratory muscles

peer reviewedLe fonctionnement des muscles respiratoires peut être altéré par différents facteurs. En particulier, une faiblesse des muscles respiratoires, un déséquilibre mécanique du système thoraco-pulmonaire ou encore une charge imposée majorée induisant une inadéquation entre la capacité de la pompe musculaire respiratoire et les besoins ventilatoires. A un stade ultime, ces différents facteurs génèrent une hypoventilation menant à l’insuffisance respiratoire de type II

Exacerbations in Copd: A Burden to Curtail

peer reviewedExacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) play a very important role. Unfortunately they were neglected a long time in the therapeutic tests. However exacerbations influence the decline of the respiratory function over time, cause important deterioration of the quality of life of the patients, increase morbidity and mortality of COPD, and finally represent a burden for health care. Reducing the number of exacerbations could potentially slow down the progression of the disease. Thus the prevention of exacerbations should be the "corner stone" of the maintenance treatment of the COPD. In this review we propose to recall the importance of exacerbations in COPD and to present the treatment which have been shown to reduce exacerbation rate in COPD

Pulmonary rehabilitation and COPD: providing patients a good environment for optimizing therapy.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an obstructive and progressive airway disease associated with an important reduction in daily physical activity and psychological problems that contribute to the patient's disability and poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Nowadays, pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) plays an essential role in the management of symptomatic patients with COPD, by breaking the vicious circle of dyspnea-decreased activity-deconditioning-isolation. Indeed the main benefits of comprehensive PR programs for patients with COPD include a decrease in symptoms (dyspnea and fatigue), improvements in exercise tolerance and HRQoL, reduction of health care utilization (particularly bed-days), as well as an increase in physical activity. Several randomized studies and meta-analyses greatly established the benefits of PR, which additionally, is recommended in a number of influential guidelines. This review aimed to highlight the impact of PR on COPD patients, focusing on the clinical usefulness of PR, which provides patients a good support for change

Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome among patients with stable COPD

peer reviewedRésumé : Le but de ce travail était d’évaluer la prévalence et de décrire les caractéristiques du phénotype mixte BPCO-asthme parmi les patients BPCO stables de stade II à IV selon la classification de GOLD. Matériel et méthodes : entre mai 2013 et avril 2014, 46 patients consécutifs furent recrutés à partir des consultations de Pneumologie du CHU de Liège. Ils étaient considérés comme présentant un syndrome mixte BPCO-asthme si leur indice de Tiffeneau était < 70% après bronchodilatation et s’accompagnait soit d’un antécédent d’asthme avant l’âge de 40 ans, soit d’au moins deux des trois critères suivants: 1) réversibilité bronchique significative (changement du VEMS après la bronchodilatation ≥ 200 ml et ≥ 12%), 2) inflammation éosinophilique: éosinophiles dans les expecto-rations ≥ 3% ou/et éosinophiles dans le sang ≥ 400/μl ou/et FENO ≥ 45 ppb, 3) histoire d’allergie respiratoire, ou IgE sériques totales ≥ 113 KU/l, ou RAST ≥ 0,35 KU/l à l’égard d’un des principaux aéroallergènes. Le phénotype mixte BPCO-asthme fut observé chez 37% des patients. L’expression symptomatique était plus marquée dans le groupe de phénotype mixte que dans le groupe de BPCO pure (CAT 24,6 ± 8,1 vs 19,4 ± 8, p < 0,05) en dépit d’un déficit spiro-métrique identique. Le coefficient de transfert alvéolo-capillaire (DLCO/VA%) était préservé dans le phénotype mixte (97 ± 24%) et supérieur à celui mesuré chez les patients BPCO pure (80 ± 20%) (p < 0,05). La prévalence du phéno-type mixte est voisine d’un tiers chez les patients BPCO et ces sujets ont une expression symptomatique plus marquée, sans signe d’obstruction bronchique plus sévère

Réhabilitation respiratoire dans la bronchopneumopathie chronique obstructive

peer reviewedLe traitement actuel de la bronchopneumopathie chronique obstructive (BPCO) doit comporter, outre un traitement médicamenteux optimal, une réhabilitation respiratoire (RR), de préférence multidisciplinaire, et un programme de postrevalidation afin de maintenir les acquis. Il est en effet clairement démontré aujourd'hui que la RR permet d'améliorer la dyspnée, la tolérance à l'effort, l'activité physique et la qualité de vie des patients. De même, elle réduit le recours aux soins de santé et donc le coût de la maladie. Dans cette synthèse, nous présenterons ce qu'est la réhabilitation pulmonaire, ses indications et ses résultats, et la façon dont elle se déroule en ambulatoire