Thorax
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Smoking is a major public health problem. As smokers age and die prematurely, the tobacco industry must continue to recruit new, young smokers. ⋯ The presentation of data for individual local authorities, which now have responsibility for public health, can be used to focus attention locally. For example, this analysis demonstrates that each day, 67 children, more than two classrooms full, start smoking in London.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Nocturnal non-invasive ventilation in COPD patients with prolonged hypercapnia after ventilatory support for acute respiratory failure: a randomised, controlled, parallel-group study.
The effectiveness of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIV) in COPD patients with prolonged hypercapnia after ventilatory support for acute respiratory failure (ARF) remains unclear. We investigated if nocturnal NIV in these patients prolongs the time to readmission for respiratory causes or death (primary endpoint) in the following 12 months. ⋯ We could not demonstrate an improvement in time to readmission or death by adding NIV for 1 year in patients with prolonged hypercapnia after an episode of NIV for ARF. There is no reason to believe the NIV was not effective since daytime PaCO2 and night-time PCO2 improved. The trend for improvement in HRQL favouring NIV we believe nevertheless should be explored further.
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Our understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has changed dramatically over the past two decades. We have moved from an airflow limitation-centric view to the realisation that COPD is a complex and heterogeneous disease, which leads inevitably to the need for personalising the assessment and treatment of patients with COPD. This review provides a brief perspective of the extraordinary transition that the COPD field has experienced in the last two decades, and speculates on how it should/can move forward in the near future in order to really achieve the goal of personalising COPD medicine in the clinic.
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Comparative Study
The Clinical COPD Questionnaire: response to pulmonary rehabilitation and minimal clinically important difference.
The Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) is a simple 10-item, health-related quality of life questionnaire (HRQoL) with good psychometric properties. However, little data exists regarding the responsiveness of the CCQ to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) or the minimal clinically important difference (MCID). The study aims were to assess the responsiveness of the CCQ to PR, to compare the responsiveness of the CCQ to other HRQoL questionnaires and to provide estimates for the MCID. ⋯ The CCQ is responsive to PR with an estimated clinically important improvement of -0.4 points. The CCQ is a practical alternative to more time-consuming measures of HRQoL.