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Respirology
Top Medical News
Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) should be the mainstay of long-term asthma management — such is the key message of the latest Singapore ACE* Clinical Guidance (ACG) for asthma, released in October 2020.
Oral prednisolone falls short of improving respiratory outcomes within a day or beyond in preschool children with acute wheeze, a study has shown.
Patients with ST-elevation and COVID-19 have different characteristics than those without COVID-19, and may have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality and stroke, according to initial results of the NACMI* registry study presented at TCT Connect 2020.
A synbiotic formula developed by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is shown to hasten recovery and increase the production of neutralizing antibodies in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
SARS-CoV-2 antibodies remained detectable up to 6 months after infection in COVID-19 patients, reveals a study.
Use of antipsychotics results in an elevated risk of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in adult patients, results of a recent study have shown. This risk is dose-dependent and significantly greater with current use of antipsychotics agents at doses of 1 defined daily dose and above.
Ivermectin confers benefits in the treatment of COVID-19, with a recent study showing that its use helps reduce the risk of death especially in patients with severe pulmonary involvement.
Special Reports
Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) should be the mainstay of long-term asthma management — such is the key message of the latest Singapore ACE* Clinical Guidance (ACG) for asthma, released in October 2020.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the globe, comparison is often drawn to influenza, another contagious respiratory-borne disease. Recently, Dr Azureen Azmel, a consultant infectious disease physician at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR), and Dr Leong Chee Loon, a consultant infectious disease physician with Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), came together to discuss about the importance of annual influenza vaccination during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Early and sustained treatments with simplified regimen are the key to achieving good asthma control, said experts during a presentation at the ERS 2020 Congress.
Mepolizumab, a first-in-class anti-IL-5* antibody, effectively prevents asthma exacerbations in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA), according to a presentation at the ERS 2020 Congress.
Oral H1-antihistamines are the initial treatment of choice for allergic rhinitis (AR) and chronic urticaria in the primary care setting. However, in a diverse population of patients with AR and urticaria, primary care physicians are faced with the challenge of prescribing the best therapy amid a wide armamentarium of antihistamines available.
Macrolide antibiotics are derived from the Streptomycesspecies. These contain either 14-membered (erythromycin [ERM],clarithromycin [CAM], roxithromycin [RXM]), 15-membered(azithromycin [AZM]) or 16-membered (spiramycin, josamycin,midecamycin) macrocyclic lactone rings. They inhibit proteinsynthesis by reversibly binding to the 23S ribosomal RNA (rRNA)in the 50s subunit of the bacterial ribosome. Traditionally,macrolides are used as first-line agents in respiratory, skin,soft tissue, and urogenital infections, and they are also activeagainst gram-positive cocci and atypical pathogens.
Pneumonia is a common infection– affecting around 3,200 people inSingapore in 2016 – making it the thirdmost common cause of hospitalisation inthe country. Its common complications,especially with delayed or inappropriatetreatment, include bacteraemia andseptic shock, lung abscesses, pleuraleffusions, empyema, pleurisy, respiratoryfailure and renal failure.
Conference Reports
Individuals positive for COVID-19 who are asymptomatic carry similar viral loads as symptomatic patients, according to a study on a population in nursing homes presented during IDWeek 2020 — underscoring the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) to limit viral transmission.
Children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) who received a shorter course of antibiotic therapy were more likely to achieve a more desirable outcome than those on a standard-course regimen, according to the SCOUT-CAP* trial presented at ID Week 2020.
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) seem to benefit from using chlorhexidine oral rinses twice daily as shown by the reduction in oral and sputum microbiota alpha diversity and by clinically significant improvements in COPD symptoms, according to a study presented at ID Week 2020.
The increased risk of mortality among patients with cancer diagnosed with COVID-19 may be due to their older age and presence of comorbidities, according to a study presented at ECCVID 2020.
A head-to-head study comparing five serological assays for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies showed that a commercial immunoassay by Siemens and a novel ELISA* test developed by the University of Oxford could achieve the desired sensitivity and specificity without further optimization — providing reassurance for their use.
More than half of the patients who recovered from COVID-19 experienced persistent fatigue regardless of their disease severity, shows a study presented at ECCVID 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have caused missed or delayed diagnosis of many medical conditions, according to a UK-based retrospective study of general practice (GP) utilization.
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