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Tobacco smoking is associated with severe health risks. In 2020, the WHO estimated that 8 million people have died due to smoking. Furthermore, smoking tobacco is a well-known risk factor for various infectious pulmonary diseases. The question raised, whether smoking is facilitating SARS-CoV-2-infections and increases adverse outcomes of COVID-19. To answer these questions a narrative review was conducted, finally including 7 systematic reviews with meta-analyses published in January and February 2021. Tobacco smoking was associated with an increased COVID-19 disease severity (odds ratio range of active vs. never smokers 1.55-2.19 and former vs. never smokers 1.20-2.48) and an increased COVID-19 in-hospital mortality (odds ratio range of active vs. never smokers 1.35-1.51 and former vs. never smokers 1.26-2.58). Beside immediate pulmonary toxic effects through active smoking, the cumulative livelong tobacco exposition and subsequent tobacco-associated diseases seem to predominantly predict adverse outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Data regarding an increased risk of infection among smokers is conflicting. However, a large observational study from England with 2.4 million persons reported an association between tobacco smoking and typical symptoms of COVID-19. For e-cigarettes and vaping less data exist, but experimental and first clinical investigations also suggest an increased risk for adverse outcomes for their use and SARS-CoV-2 infections. Especially during the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with limited therapeutic options it is particularly important to advise smokers of their increased risks for unfavourable COVID-19 outcomes. Evidence based support for smoking cessation should be offered. In Germany, the existing and well-established methods to support tobacco cessation need to be reimbursed by statutory health insurances., Competing Interests: R. Bals erhielt Forschungsunterstützung durch das BMBF, Wilhelm Sander Stiftung, Deutsche Krebshilfe, Mukoviszidose e. V., Schwiete Stiftung sowie Zuwendungen für Advisory Boards oder Vorträge von AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, CSL Behring.W. Pankow hatte Einkünfte aus Beratungstätigkeit für Pfizer Deutschland GmbH.C. Rustler: Geschäftsführung im Deutschen Netz Rauchfreier Krankenhäuser & Gesundheitseinrichtungen, Zuwendungen zur Implementierung des „rauchfrei tickets“ zur Vermittlung in die Rauchstoppberatung am Telefon der BZgA, Mitgliedschaft im Wissenschaftlichen Aktionskreis Tabakentwöhnung WAT e. V., Mitautorin der S3-Leitlinie „Rauchen und Tabakabhängigkeit: Screening, Diagnostik und Behandlung“ (2021).Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Based on real-life data for the stage distribution of COPD patients (GOLD) and the actual stage-related treatment costs in a large nationwide cohort study (COSYCONET) 1, the influence of the reduced smoking rate on treatment costs was determined for the scenario of a reduction in the smoking rate of 26 % in this patient group by 10 percentage points to 16 %. The assumption was made that with a reduced smoking rate, lower stages (I/II) will be more strongly represented, while higher and more cost-intensive stages (III/IV) will be proportionally reduced. The intervention to achieve tobacco abstinence was calculated for the rough model calculations with the typical costs of a guideline-compliant treatment by a behavioral therapy group cessation program and the parallel use of medication support 2 3. The result showed a potential reduction of case costs by 10.5 %, not including reduction in costs associated with treatment of comorbidities., Competing Interests: Thomas Hering erhielt in den letzten 3 Jahren Honorare für Beratung und Vorträge von AstraZeneca GmbH, Berlin-Chemie, GSK, Mylan Pharma, Novartis GmbH, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda, bytes4business, Carepath Technologies. Er betreibt die gemeinwohlorientierte Vermittlungsplattform www.rauchfrei-in-berlin.de und ist Autor der Programmes „Mein Nichtraucherprogramm (Entwöhnungsprogramm des Bundesverbandes der Pneumologen – BdP).Anil Batra hat in den letzten 3 Jahren einschlägige Förderungen durch die Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA) e. V., die Deutsche Krebshilfe und das BMBF erhalten. AB betreibt das Tabakentwöhnungsprogramm „Nichtraucher in sechs Schritten“ und führt regelmäßig Fortbildungen zu diesem Thema durch.Stephan Mühlig hatte in den letzten 3 Jahren wirtschaftliche oder persönliche Verbindungen zur AOKPLUS, der Deutschen Krebshilfe, dem Sächsischen Staatsministierium für Soziales und Gesundheit, der BZgA, dem Bundesgesundheitsministerium, den Firmen Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson.Dennis Nowak erhielt Vortragshonorare von Bristol MyersSquibb, Berlin Chemie, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Mundipharma, Novartis, Hexal, Lilly. Er ist im Advisory Board Raucherentwöhnung der Firma Pfizer tätig.Tobias Rüther erhielt in den letzten drei Jahren Beratungs- und Vortragshonorare von Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi und Servier und Berlin Chemie.Larissa Schwarzkopf hatte keinerlei finanzielle, persönliche oder sonst wie geartete Konflikte., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

New patients in the secondary respiratory care require more time for the first consultation and place a higher diagnostic and therapeutic demand if compared to patients already in chronic care. More diagnostic procedures and patient's education by the team are required. No such burden is observed regarding differential degrees of severity of respiratory diseases, e. g. COPD. The overall demands add up to twice the demands of patients already in care. Thus the time required for the treatment of 50 new patients allows consultations for 100 patients already known in the office.As additional time and effort for new patients is not adequately represented in the German medical tax (EBM) a trend to risk selection and a preference for control patients is observed. In contrast incentives to foster treatment of new patients could be an effective measure to dramatically reduce waiting time for visits with pulmonologists. This should be achieved by changes in the German medical tax (EBM)., Competing Interests: A. Hellmann ist Vorsitzender des Bundesverbandes der Pneumologen, Schlaf- und Beatmungsmediziner (BdP); Vorträge für Novartis und Allergopharma.T. Hering ist stellv. Vorsitzender des BdP.J. Andres ist Geschäftsführer der medWIss GmbH, Auftragnehmer des BdP., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Drug therapy of obstructive airway diseases mainly relies on inhaled medication. The success of this therapy depends primarily on the selection of the appropriate inhaler considering patient's choice and the correct application. The aut-idem-rule, an active exclusion of the optional substitution by the pharmacist, allows prescribing physicians to ensure the delivery of a particular inhaler, which was selected for that patient, who was trained to use specifically that inhaler. This survey shows that pneumologists and, to a greater extent general practitioners, do not consistently make use of this option, although they unanimously agree on the importance of targeted inhaler selection. As a result, patients may receive different inhalers in the pharmacy, where the inhaler is chosen under consideration of market-driven aspects such as rebate contracts or stock. This causes that patients get confused by the exchange of their inhaler. Thus the exchange of the inhaler by the pharmacist leads to uncertainty and application problems in patients. Hence, the success of the comparatively complex inhaled therapy is endangered. This could be prevented, if prescribing physicians were informed and supported consistently regarding the use of aut-idem exclusion to ensure an optimal therapy for each individual patient., Competing Interests: T. Hering und J. Andres geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. M. Redeker, E. Schwarz, C. Mohrlang sind Mitarbeiter der GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co. KG. M. Redeker und C. Mohrlang besitzen Aktien des Unternehmens., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Exacerbations determine the disease process in COPD often decisively, whereas their detection and documentation has not been established satisfactory yet. For this purpose, a simple short Patient Questionnaire with a maximum of five positive answers was developed and evaluated. Values of 2 or more positive responses amplify the signal for an exacerbation, while with the presence of only 1 positive response a potential, but not a likely exacerbation must be considered. The MEP is well suited for a continuous documentation in computer-based administration systems., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

COPD patients under shared treatment of general practitioners and pulmonologists were grouped in GOLD classification I-IV and A-D, respectively to find out whether the new A-D classification showed advantages concerning therapy decisions. As a result of CAT separation at 10 points (GOLD A-D rule) group C with higher risk and low symptoms was very small. It is described how CAT threshold values of 15 and 20 points would affect the size of the groups A-D in pulmonary practice. The new A-D classification showed better signals for exacerbations. Regardless of the classification I-IV or A-D respectively patients received a considerable amount of overtreatment (low degrees of severity) or undertreatment (higher degrees of severity). Only the application of prednisolone and of roflumilast, respectively, showed a noticeable relation to increased exacerbations in system A-D. A variety of reasons might cause that obviously the principles of both classifications are followed poorly. Higher attention for exacerbations may be considered as a progress resulting from the new a-d classification. Possible abrupt short term intraindividual changes of severity, inadequate to the global course of disease, are a possible disadvantage of the new A-D classification., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Smoking cessation as a therapeutic intervention has largely not the significance that it should have according to its potential influence on diseases in the pulmonary practice. Barriers against smoking cessation apart from the addiction character of tobacco dependence are mainly the almost complete absence of reimbursement as well as concerns regarding low achievable long-term abstinence. The presented study shows that despite these barriers smoking cessation in pulmonology practice is successful if carried out by using a 2-step motivation of the participants. The long-term abstinence success of 46 % after 12 months (point prevalence) presented here was achieved with the use of behavioral therapy and medical support. Success factors are doctor's office setting and consequent information and encouragement for medical support (mostly varenicline)., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

To assess the quality of treatment of patients with asthma who were treated jointly by pulmonologists and the family doctor, a data analysis was performed in 13 asthma specialists in 894 asthmatics and a written survey of patients after 3 months of treatment.The data analysis related to the current therapy, the therapy changes and the changes in asthma control test (ACT). One focus of the investigation was placed on the separate analysis of patients with controlled and uncontrolled asthma. Both patient groups show both decrease, as well as increases in the number of points of the ACT. In patients with non-controlled asthma, the proportion of an increase in the number of points in the ACT is above average and indicates an improvement of the disease. This is operated in the patient's subjective assessment. In both patient groups there is a large proportion of patients who report a subjective improvement. An improvement is usually achieved by an improved pharmacotherapy, a deterioration usually occurs due to external influences. The differences for the patient groups are here but less significantly. There is a general satisfaction with both the drug therapy, as well as with the handling. The inhalation drug therapy is performed very stable. In patients with poor asthma control therapy is usually intensified. In oral pharmacotherapy oral steroid therapy has a great dynamic in patients with uncontrolled asthma. In this group, the most frequent increases in the dose of inhaled substances are recorded., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

In the present study, patients with asthma were interviewed with regard to their treatment adherence. It was shown that adherence is significantly influenced by age, occupation, quality of information about the disease and interest of the patient in disease, mode of action and use of the inhalation device. Younger, working patients who do not feel "completely adequately" informed are more likely to be not-adherent. Each aspect should be noted separately.The characterization enables forming target groups for appropriate counselling initiatives in pulmonology practice and allows the effectiveness of the measures to be examined. The results confirm the importance of doctor/patient communication for achieving a high level of adherence and thus therapeutic success.It is suggested that, in addition to questionnaires already in use, asthma patients should be given the following questions in writing during routine monitoring of therapy; based on the results of the survey, the extent of advice necessary can be determined -Do you feel sufficiently informed about your illness? -Do you feel sufficiently informed about the effect of the drug therapy? -Do you feel sufficiently informed about the handling of the inhalation drugs? -Are you satisfied with the handling of your inhalation medication? The following options to answer the questions should be available: completely - mainly - somewhat - not at all. There were significant differences in adherence between patients who were completely satisfied with the handling of their device and those that were not. However, there was no significant difference between the devices. Therefore, the same therapy adherence can be predicted for all devices when the device is suitable for the patient and also provides complete satisfaction in handling. Since it is the subjective perception of patients, the data show significant differences between study centres. These were mirrored in a blind benchmark to stimulate improvements., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Cigarette smoking is the main cause of COPD. Quitting smoking is thus the most effective treatment strategy and central in COPD prevention. A number of guidelines on prevention, diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation of COPD have been published. To help implementing and standardizing smoking cessation in COPD a guideline was published 2008 in Germany focusing on this complex issue. The present guideline is an update of the 2008 guideline and has a high grade of evidence (S3 according to the AWMF; Arbeitsgemeinschaft wissenschaftlicher medizinischer Fachgesellschaften). The guideline gives comprehensive and practical information on how to integrate smoking cessation as an central part of COPD therapy., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Continuous cigarette smoking clearly influences the course and prognosis of diseases like COPD/emphysema and asthma bronchiale in an adverse manner. However smoking cessation as a therapy measure is not a common part of general health-care in Germany as reimbursement of the central component of psychosocial support (behavioural therapy - BT) is allowed only to a minor degree and of pharmacotherapy support (nicotine replacement, varenicline, bupropione) is completely excluded by the legislator. This prospective "real-life" study with 198 participants shows, that with the abolition of the reimbursement barrier for cognitive behavioural therapy in the setting of a pneumological practice/clinic a high long-term abstinence of 45.4 % (point prevalence after 12 months) can be achieved. Apart from the reimbursement of BT, predominant success factors were the implementation of the measure in the practice/clinic, where patients are under long-term treatment and the application of a two-stage motivational model for the participation. Reimbursement of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy was not possible in this study. Thus, pharmacotherapy was applied to fewer than necessary patients and was predominantly too short and in a too low dosage., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

More than 30 % of the German population are regular smokers, over half of whom will eventually die of smoking-related diseases. Life expectancy is abridged by 10 years in smokers compared to non-smokers. Smoking tobacco is the main risk factor for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predisposes to a number of other lung diseases. A smoking cessation programme including pharmacological as well as psychosocial support is highly effective in COPD Patients. Smoking cessation improves lung function, symptoms and mortality. In conclusion, smoking cessation services are among the most effective medical interventions. Thus, a sufficient supply of smoking cessation services on a population level must be ensured.

This report describes a 27-year-old male patient with advanced spondylitis tuberculosa, who, being suspected of having a malignant tumour, was submitted to a CT-guided biopsy. Treatment comprising CT-controlled insertion of a permanent drain, and antituberculous chemotherapy and dorsal stabilisation, was administered. A high-risk intervention (diagnostic and therapeutic thoracotomy with the attendant acute danger of paraplegia was avoided through the use of the most up-to-date imaging procedures available.

This paper reports on a 45-year-old male patient with tracheobronchomegaly, a very rare pathological picture, which is thought to be associated with autosomal, recessive genetic transmission. Radiological, nuclear-medical and pulmonary function-analytical findings, together with treatment, are presented.