Project description:Background: Spirometry is the most common pulmonary function test. It is widely used in the assessment of lung function to provide objective information used in the diagnosis of lung diseases and monitoring lung health. In 2005, the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society jointly adopted technical standards for conducting spirometry. Improvements in instrumentation and computational capabilities, together with new research studies and enhanced quality assurance approaches, have led to the need to update the 2005 technical standards for spirometry to take full advantage of current technical capabilities.Methods: This spirometry technical standards document was developed by an international joint task force, appointed by the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society, with expertise in conducting and analyzing pulmonary function tests, laboratory quality assurance, and developing international standards. A comprehensive review of published evidence was performed. A patient survey was developed to capture patients' experiences.Results: Revisions to the 2005 technical standards for spirometry were made, including the addition of factors that were not previously considered. Evidence to support the revisions was cited when applicable. The experience and expertise of task force members were used to develop recommended best practices.Conclusions: Standards and consensus recommendations are presented for manufacturers, clinicians, operators, and researchers with the aims of increasing the accuracy, precision, and quality of spirometric measurements and improving the patient experience. A comprehensive guide to aid in the implementation of these standards was developed as an online supplement.
Project description:Improved and durable control of hypertension is a global priority for healthcare providers and policymakers. There are several lifestyle measures that are proven to result in improved blood pressure (BP) control. Moreover, there is incontrovertible evidence from large scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that antihypertensive drugs lower BP safely and effectively in the long-term resulting in substantial reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Importantly, however, evidence is accumulating to suggest that patients neither sustain long-term healthy behaviours nor adhere to lifelong drug treatment regimens and thus alternative measures to control hypertension warrant further investigation. Endovascular renal denervation (RDN) appears to hold some promise as a non-pharmacological approach to lowering BP and achieves renal sympathectomy using either radiofrequency energy or ultrasound-based approaches. This treatment modality has been evaluated in clinical trials in humans since 2009 but initial studies were compromised by being non-randomised, without sham control and small in size. Subsequently, clinical trial design and rigour of execution has been greatly improved resulting in recent sham-controlled RCTs that demonstrate short-term reduction in ambulatory BP without any significant safety concerns in both medication-naïve and medication-treated hypertensive patients. Despite this, the joint UK societies still feel that further evaluation of this therapy is warranted and that RDN should not be offered to patients outside of the context of clinical trials. This document reviews the updated evidence since our last consensus statement from 2014 and provides a research agenda for future clinical studies.
Project description:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly contagious, mainly causing inflammatory lesions in the lungs, and can also cause damage to the intestine and liver. The rapid spread of the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia has posed complex challenges to global public health. Early detection, isolation, diagnosis, and treatment are the most effective means of prevention and control. At present, the epidemic situation of new coronavirus infection has tended to be controlled in China, and it is still in a period of rapid rise in much of the world. The current gold standard for the diagnosis of COVID-19 is the detection of coronavirus nucleic acids, but imaging has an important role in the detection of lung lesions, stratification, evaluation of treatment strategies, and differentiation of mixed infections. This Chinese expert consensus statement summarizes the imaging features of COVID-19 pneumonia and may help radiologists across the world to understand this disease better.