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Coexistence of bronchiectasis with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may lead to the worsening of the functional parameters in exacerbations and may negatively affect the outcomes.

This study is a retrospective cross-sectional study that aims to investigate the relationships between bronchiectasis with COPD exacerbation and all-cause of mortality. We retrospectively enrolled 122 cases hospitalized for COPD exacerbation from 2010 to 2016. Patients who underwent thoracic tomography in the previous year of the index exacerbation were included in the study. Patients who admitted to the intensive care unit and patients with infected bronchiectasis and with conditions that mimic COPD exacerbation were excluded from the study. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory findings, comorbidities and the number of exacerbations in the previous year and the presence of bronchiectasis were recorded using hospital electronic registry. The radiological evaluation of bronchiectasis was made by the modified Reiff score (MRS).

Bronchiectasis was found in 66 (54%) of 122 patients included in the study. The mean age was 67.5 ±10.3 in the whole group, 108 (88.5%) of the patients were male, and 14 (11.5%) were female. When patients were stratified according to the presence of bronchiectasis, no statistically significant difference was found in terms of comorbidity scores, respiratory functions, exacerbation parameters, laboratory values and all cause of mortality between the groups (p>0.05). There was no statistical relation between the presence of bronchiectasis and long-term survival (log-rank test p=0.83).

This study shows that patients with bronchiectasis did not cause a poor outcome in patients with COPD exacerbation.

This study shows that patients with bronchiectasis did not cause a poor outcome in patients with COPD exacerbation.

Asthma is prevalent among children and adolescents. Sumatriptan Few studies have assessed the knowledge and perceptions of asthma among adolescents.

This study assessed the knowledge and perception about asthma among secondary school students in an all-girls school in Nigeria.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in a Nigerian secondary school in Enugu State (February 2020). In Senior Secondary School (SS1, SS2 and SS3), students could be in one of three specialized classes Sciences, Humanities and Business. A self-administered structured questionnaire was filled by conveniently sampled students in SS1 and SS2. Inferential statistics utilized the Pearson’s chi-square test and multiple linear regression with statistical significance set as P < 0.05.

Three hundred and eighty-eight (388) students participated in the study (mean age = 14.64 ± 0.93 years). Majority of the students were in Science class (n = 299; 77.1%). There was high awareness about asthma (n = 384; 99.0%). More than half of them had good asthma knowledge (n = 279; 71.9%); close to three-fifths had favourable perception of asthma (n = 222; 57.2%). More students in SS2 had good knowledge of asthma compared to those in SS1 (76.7% vs. 67.2%; ꭓ

 = 4.338; P = 0.037). More students in Science class had favourable perceptions about asthma compared with those in Humanities and Business class (60.5% vs. 48.1% vs. 25.0%; ꭓ

 = 7.458; P = 0.024).

Majority of the students were aware about asthma and had good knowledge of the disease while close to three-fifths had favourable perceptions about asthma.

Majority of the students were aware about asthma and had good knowledge of the disease while close to three-fifths had favourable perceptions about asthma.

The hippocampus is thought to be involved in movement, but its precise role in movement execution and inhibition has not been well studied. Previous work with direct neural recordings has found beta-band (13-30Hz) modulation in both movement execution and inhibition throughout the motor system, but the role of beta-band modulation in the hippocampus during movement inhibition is not well understood. Here, we perform a Go/No-Go reaching task in ten patients with medically refractory epilepsy to study human hippocampal beta-power changes during movement.

Ten epilepsy patients (5 female; ages 21-46) were implanted with intracranial depth electrodes for seizure monitoring and localization. Local field potentials were sampled at 2000Hz during a Go/No-Go movement task. Comparison of beta-band power between Go and No-Go conditions was conducted using Wilcoxon signed-rank hypothesis testing for each patient. Sub-analyses were conducted to assess differences in the anterior vs. posterior contacts, ipsilateral vs. indicate that increases in hippocampal beta power are associated with movement inhibition. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report this phenomenon in the human hippocampus. The beta band may represent a state-change signal involved in motor processing. Future focus on the beta band in understanding human motor and impulse control will be vital.With great interest, we read the article by Fatima et al [1], which concluded that higher HAQ and disease activity score at 1 year were significantly associated with all-cause mortality in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We agree with the use of discrete multivariate analysis on the cohort dataset. However, we would like to propose some methodological issues of the study.

Although long-term home non-invasive ventilation (H-NIV) has been used among chronic hypercapnic COPD patients, its clinical benefit is still on debate. We aim to assess the impact of H-NIV in chronic hypercapnic COPD patients.

COPD patients who initiated H-NIV between January 2010 and December 2017 were included. Patients with concomitant respiratory disorders were excluded. Acute exacerbation (AE) before and 2years after H-NIV initiation was assessed as main outcome. Secondary outcomes included lung function and gas exchange parameters. Survival since H-NIV initiation was determined, and factors related with survival were explored.

Seventy-two patients were enrolled. A decrease in partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO

) in arterial blood (p < 0.001) and an improvement of partial pressure of oxygen (PaO

) (p < 0.001) were achieved using a high-intensity H-NIV. Regarding lung function, residual volume (RV) reduced (p = 0.010) and forced-expiratory volume in 1s (FEV

) improved (p = 0.043) after H-NIV initiation.