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Preterm lung disease: not just for neonatologists

Improvements in neonatal critical care have resulted in more people than ever reaching adulthood after being born prematurely. At the same time, it is becoming clearer that preterm birth can increase the risk of respiratory disease throughout a person’s lifetime. Awareness that a patient was born preterm can enable early specialist assessment and intervention when there is any concern about lung health. 

Insights into the associations between the gut microbiome, its metabolites and heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is the end stage of most cardiovascular diseases and remains a significant health problem globally. We aimed to assess whether patients with left ventricular ejection fraction ≤45% had alterations in both the gut microbiome profile and production of associated metabolites when compared to a healthy cohort.

Improving the Diagnosis and Treatment of Paediatric Bronchiectasis Through Research and Translation

Bronchiectasis, particularly in children, is an increasingly recognised yet neglected chronic lung disorder affecting individuals in both low-to-middle and high-income countries. It has a high disease burden and there is substantial inequity within and between settings. Furthermore, compared with other chronic lung diseases, considerably fewer resources are available for children with bronchiectasis. 

Current and novel therapies for management of Acinetobacter baumannii-associated pneumonia

Acinetobacter baumannii is a common pathogen associated with hospital-acquired pneumonia showing increased resistance to carbapenem and colistin antibiotics nowadays. Infections with A. baumannii cause high patient fatalities due to their capability to evade current antimicrobial therapies, emphasizing the urgency of developing viable therapeutics to treat A. baumannii-associated pneumonia.

Antenatal creatine supplementation reduces persistent fetal lung inflammation and oxidative stress in an ovine model of chorioamnionitis

Chorioamnionitis is a common antecedent of preterm birth and induces inflammation and oxidative stress in the fetal lungs. Reducing inflammation and oxidative stress in the fetal lungs may improve respiratory outcomes in preterm infants. Creatine is an organic acid with known anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Adipose tissue in the small airways: How much is enough to drive functional changes?

Obesity is a contributing factor to asthma severity; while it has long been understood that obesity is related to greater asthma burden, the mechanisms though which this occurs have not been fully elucidated. One common explanation is that obesity mechanically reduces lung volume through accumulation of adipose tissue external to the thoracic cavity.

Antibiotics for the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections in children with neurodisability: Systematic review

Determine the optimal antibiotic choice for lower respiratory tract infection in children with neurodisability. 

Azithromycin reduces bronchial wall thickening in infants with cystic fibrosis

COMBAT-CF showed that children aged 0-3 years treated with azithromycin did clinically better than placebo but there was no effect on CT-scores. We reanalysed CTs using an automatic bronchus-artery (BA) analysis.

Erdosteine in children and adults with bronchiectasis (BETTER trial): study protocol for a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial

Bronchiectasis is a worldwide chronic lung disorder where exacerbations are common. It affects people of all ages, but especially Indigenous populations in high-income nations. Despite being a major contributor to chronic lung disease, there are no licensed therapies for bronchiectasis and there remain relatively few randomised controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in children and adults.

Prematurity-associated lung disease: is it asthma?

Shannon Elizabeth Simpson Smith BMedSci (hons), PhD PhD, MSc, BSc Head, Strong Beginnings Research, Co-head Foundations of Lung Disease Program