ERS and ATS publish statement on the current state and future directions of COPD research
2015-04-01
(Press-News.org) The European Respiratory Society (ERS) and American Thoracic Society (ATS) have published a statement describing the current evidence on the diagnosis, assessment and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), identifying gaps in knowledge and making recommendations for the directions of future research.
ERS Guidelines Director, Professor Guy Brusselle, commented: "The World Health Organization predicts that COPD will become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030. It is therefore a critical time for us to act on improving the management of people with the condition. This document provides us with a valuable point of reference for identifying the most effective types of research in the field of COPD. By identifying the right questions to ask, we aim to improve the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of people with COPD."
"Although much progress has been made in the assessment and treatment of patients with COPD, a range of important questions remains," said Kevin C. Wilson, MD, Senior Director of Documents and Medical Affairs at the ATS and co-chair of the committee that produced the statement. "In our review of the evidence, we aimed to identify these knowledge gaps and highlight questions that will have the greatest impact on improving patient outcomes if addressed by future research."
The ERS/ATS Research Statement highlights the types of research that leading clinicians and researchers believe will have the greatest impact on outcomes, including studies to determine the impact of COPD-related clinical practice guidelines on outcomes in patients with COPD. The statement appears in the April 1 issue of the European Respiratory Society's European Respiratory Journal and the April issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Recommendations include:
Using patient-centred outcomes in clinical research
Finding high-quality surrogate outcomes that reliably predict patient-centred outcomes
Research examining the role of CT scanning in COPD patients
Studies assessing the accuracy and utility of COPD screening tools currently used for diagnosis and guiding treatment
Examination of the relationship between phenotypic traits and patient outcomes
Studies on the relationships between COPD and comorbidities
Research on the effects of quitting smoking on COPD disease activity and on approaches to help patients quit smoking
Studies measuring the effects of pharmacological treatments in different COPD subtypes and of different pharmacological treatment approaches and combinations
Studies comparing the effectiveness of home-based, hospital-based and community-based pulmonary rehabilitation programmes
Research on the effectiveness of long-term oxygen therapy and long-term noninvasive mechanical ventilation for COPD patients
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-04-01
(NEW YORK -- April 01, 2015) A new blood test promises to predict which people will have severe allergic reactions to foods according to a new study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published online today in the The Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
To detect food allergies, physicians typically use skin prick tests or blood tests that measure levels of allergen-specific IgE (sIgE), a protein made by the immune system. However, these tests cannot predict the severity of allergic reactions. Oral food challenges, in which specific allergens are given to patients ...
2015-03-31
PULLMAN, Wash.- A team led by Washington State University researchers has found that methane emissions from local natural gas distribution systems in cities and towns throughout the U.S. have decreased in the past 20 years with significant variation by region.
The researchers found that upgrades in metering and regulating stations, changes in pipeline materials, better instruments for detecting pipeline leaks as well as regulatory changes have led to methane emissions that are from 36% to 70% lower than current Environmental Protection Agency estimates when the data ...
2015-03-31
DALLAS, March 31, 2015 -- A new scientific statement issued jointly by three medical organizations and published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension, addresses how low to aim when treating patients with high blood pressure who also have vascular diseases.
The document provides an up-to-date summary on treating hypertension in patients who have both high blood pressure and have had a stroke, heart attack or some other forms of heart disease, said Elliott Antman, M.D., President of the American Heart Association and professor of medicine at Harvard ...
2015-03-31
Montréal, March 31, 2015 - A team of researchers at the IRCM led by Frédéric Charron, PhD, in collaboration with bioengineers at McGill University, uncovered a new kind of synergy in the development of the nervous system, which explains an important mechanism required for neural circuits to form properly. Their breakthrough, published today in the scientific journal PLoS Biology, could eventually help develop tools to repair nerve cells following injuries to the nervous system (such as the brain and spinal cord).
Researchers in Dr. Charron's laboratory ...
2015-03-31
Women seek a greater variety of products and services when they are ovulating, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Fertile women seek more options in men and this drives their desire for alternative options as consumers. If you are open to checking out alternatives, you are simply more likely to find the best option and it turns out that the desire for alternatives in mate choice impacts other choice situations," write authors Kristina M. Durante and Ashley Rae Arsena (both University of Texas, San Antonio).
In one study, women reported how ...
2015-03-31
Why do some consumers make choices based on their feelings instead of rational assessments? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers who consider themselves independent are more inclined to rely on feelings when making decisions.
"When making a decision, we can either base the decision on how we feel about the different options or on our logical reasoning about the specific features of the options. Our feelings often contradict logical assessments and the product that appeals more to our feelings is not the one that 'makes more sense' based ...
2015-03-31
Why is it so hard for consumers to save money? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers are often impatient and do not think about the long-term consequences of spending money.
"We've known that being aware of the benefits of not spending and being patient contribute to savings, but our research finds that one or the other is not enough. For consumers to be motivated to save money, they need to both consider the future financial consequences and care enough about their financial future when spending money," write authors Daniel M. Bartels ...
2015-03-31
Why does time seem to crawl if you're waiting in line at the post office, but hours can fly by in minutes when you're doing something fun? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines the factors that determine how consumers experience time.
"Consumers lie happily on the beach for hours despite the uneventfulness of the activity, but they can become impatient and extremely frustrated after just a few minutes of waiting in line. This puzzled us, and we wanted to know more as this phenomenon poses a number of challenges for businesses," write authors Niklas ...
2015-03-31
PHOENIX -- The shortage of kidneys needed for organ transplantation in the U.S. can be alleviated in part by using select kidneys with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), resulting in safe and positive outcomes, according to research conducted at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
Results of the single-site study, led by Raymond Heilman, M.D., Chair of the Division of Nephrology, suggest that acutely injured kidneys from deceased donors can be considered for transplantation -- reconsidering previous thinking that such kidneys should be discarded.
Kidneys can result in acute injury when ...
2015-03-31
Supplemental folic acid can enhance blood vessel dilation in older adults, according to Penn State researchers, suggesting that folic acid supplements may be an inexpensive alternative for helping older adults to increase skin blood flow during heat waves and reduce cardiovascular events.
"We know that when older adults are exposed to heat, their bodies are not able to increase skin blood flow to the same extent that young subjects do, and as a consequence, older adults are at a greater risk for cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, during environmental ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] ERS and ATS publish statement on the current state and future directions of COPD research