Therapeutic advances in respiratory disease
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Ther Adv Respir Dis · Dec 2016
Review Comparative StudyThe clinical profile of benralizumab in the management of severe eosinophilic asthma.
Despite several therapeutic choices, 10-20% of patients with severe uncontrolled asthma do not respond to maximal best standard treatments, leading to a healthcare expenditure of up to 80% of overall costs for asthma. Today, there are new important therapeutic strategies, both pharmacological and interventional, that can result in improvement of severe asthma management, such as omalizumab, bronchial thermoplasty and other biological drugs, for example, mepolizumab, reslizumab and benralizumab. The availability of these new treatments and the increasing knowledge of the different asthmatic phenotypes and endotypes makes correct patient selection increasingly complex and important. In this article, we discuss the features of benralizumab compared with other anti-interleukin-5 biologics and omalizumab, the identification of appropriate patients, the safety profile and future developments.
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Ther Adv Respir Dis · Dec 2016
ReviewExperience with indwelling pleural catheters in the treatment of recurrent pleural effusions.
Recurrent pleural effusions are frequently encountered in clinical practice. Whether malignant or nonmalignant, they often pose a challenge to the practicing clinician. ⋯ Since then, a number of publications have documented its utility in managing recurrent nonmalignant pleural effusions. The purpose of this paper is to review the use of the PleurX catheter in recurrent pleural effusions.