Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

Luckily, the ERS of 2022 was held live in Barcelona, Spain, with lots of ‘physical’ attendees. And many other interested colleagues could follow many sessions online. Again, numerous speakers were able to present the most recent updates in important areas of pulmonary diseases. Some of these studies and findings are highlighted below.

An awake prone position did not result in improved clinical outcomes compared with usual care in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure from COVID-19. Although the intervention appeared to be safe, maintaining a prone position for many hours is challenging for patients. The full paper has been published in JAMA.

Complement activation (C5a) has been shown to play an important role in severe COVID-19 and vilobelimab is a first-in-class anti-C5a monoclonal antibody. C5a levels are high in patients with severe COVID-19 and are related to disease severity. Vilobelimab may reduce mortality in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, the phase 3 PANAMO trial showed.

A post-COVID syndrome (PCS) scoring tool was developed, including the entire clinical spectrum of PCS in 12 binary questions. The tool was validated and could potentially be used for the diagnosis and stratification of patients with PCS. Also, the scoring tool could serve as a possible endpoint for clinical studies.

The addition of icenticaftor on top of triple inhalation therapy for 24 weeks resulted in a clear dose-response on 5 endpoints in patients with COPD and chronic bronchitis. The 300 mg, twice-daily dose of the drug showed an encouraging benefit-risk profile and will be investigated in further trials.

A point-of-care, eosinophil-guided prescription of prednisolone was non-inferior to standard-of-care prescription of prednisolone in the treatment of COPD exacerbations, the multicentre, randomised STARR2 trial showed.

Tezepelumab reduced mucus plugging in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma. Moreover, reductions in mucus scores correlated with improvements in lung function. Tezepelumab is the first biologic agent to demonstrate these results in a randomised-controlled trial.

This report outlines the most significant advancements discussed at the ERS conference. So, we hope that you will enjoy reading this Conference Report!

Stay healthy and kind regards,

Prof. em. Richard Dekhuijzen

 

Biography

Prof. P.N. Richard Dekhuijzen is Professor of Pulmonology at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His specific area of clinical and research interest includes asthma, COPD, and inhalation technology. He studied medicine at VU Amsterdam and completed his training in pulmonology at the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis in Amsterdam and in the Academic Hospital Nijmegen. In 1989, he finished his PhD thesis on training of the respiratory muscles in COPD, followed by a PhD thesis on steroid induced myopathy of the diaphragm in 1994 at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium). He is author/co-author of over 330 peer-reviewed papers and many textbook chapters on respiratory medicine. From 2008-2010, he was Head of the Cardiology Department at Radboudumc. Until 2016, he chaired the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, the Heart-Lung Centre Nijmegen, and the Medical Staff at Radboudumc. He is the scientific chair of the Aerosol Drug Management Improvement Team (ADMIT) and chair of the Dutch Inhalation Technology Working Group. Currently, he is chair of the Medical Ethical Committee of the Radboudumc.

 

Conflict of Interest Statement: In the last 3 years, Richard Dekhuijzen and/or his department received research grants, unrestricted educational grants, and/or fees for lectures and advisory board meetings from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, GSK, Mundipharma, Novartis, Sandoz, Teva, and Zambon.



Posted on 31 October 2022