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Magnolia Cardona,1,2 Adem Sav,3 Zoe A Michaleff,1 Sarah T Thomas,2 Claudia C Dobler1,4 1Institute for Evidence Based Healthcare, Bond University, Robina, Queensland, Australia; 2Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, Southport, Queensland, Australia; 3School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 4The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaCorrespondence: Magnolia Cardona, Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine Level 4, HSM Building 5, Bond University, Robina, Queensland, 4226, Australia, Tel +61 7 5595 0170, Email mcardona@bond.edu.auPurpose: To identify and rank areas of treatment burden in chronic heart failure (CHF), including solutions, that should be discussed during the clinical encounter from a patient, and doctors’ perspective.Patients and Methods: Patients with CHF and clinicians managing heart failure were invited. Nominal group technique sessions held either face to face or online in 2021– 2022, with individual identification of priorities and voting on ranking.Results: Four patient groups (N=22) and one doctor group (N=5) were held. For patients with heart failure, in descending order of priority Doctor-patient communication, Inefficiencies of the healthcare system, Healthcare access issues, Cost implications of treatment, Psychosocial impacts on patients and their families, and Impact of treatment work were the most important treatment burdens. Priorities independently identified by the doctors aligned with the patients’ but ranking differed. Patient solutions ranged from involvement of nurses or pharmacists to enhance understanding of discharge planning, through to linkage between health information systems, and maintaining strong family or social support networks. Doctors’ solutions covered timing medicines with activities of daily living, patient education on the importance of compliance, medication reviews to overcome clinical inertia, and routine clinical audits.Conclusion: The top treatment burden priorities for CHF patients were related to interaction with clinicians and health system inefficiencies, whereas doctors were generally aware of patients’ treatment burden but tended to focus on the complexity of the direct treatment work. Addressing the priority issues identified here can commence with clinicians becoming aware of the issues that matter to patients and proactively discussing feasible immediate and longer-term solutions during clinical encounters.Keywords: patient priorities, barriers, qualitative studies, older adults

Adem Sav,1 Sarah T Thomas,2 Magnolia Cardona,3,4 Zoe A Michaleff,4,5 Claudia C Dobler3,4,6 1School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 2Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, Queensland, Australia; 3Evidence-Based Practice Professorial Unit, Gold Coast Hospital, Southport, Queensland, Australia; 4Institute for Evidence Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; 5Northern NSW Local Health District, Lismore, New South Wales, Australia; 6The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, AustraliaCorrespondence: Adem Sav, School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Tel +61 7 3138 5795, Email adem.sav@qut.edu.auPurpose: Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) feel overburdened with the treatment and management of their illness. Although research has begun to shed light on how COPD patients experience treatment burden, most of what we know is limited to personal experiences of patients. The aim of this study is to identify and prioritise areas of treatment burden that should be discussed during the clinical encounter from the perspectives of COPD patients, carers, and respiratory physicians.Patients and Methods: Data were collected from participants using the nominal group technique. Five nominal group sessions were conducted in total (n = 31); three sessions with patients (n = 18), one with carers (n = 7) and another with respiratory physicians (pulmonologists or chest physicians) (n = 6). Each session was recorded and analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: Going beyond understanding patients’ and carers’ experiences of treatment burden, this study offers a practical viewpoint of what should be discussed in a clinical encounter. Each group of participants contextualized treatment burden issues for discussion from their own perspectives. There was strong agreement, however, across the groups that difficulties accessing healthcare, lack of education and information, and worry about COPD treatment and prognosis were the most important treatment burden priorities for discussion.Conclusion: Understanding and creating opportunities to discuss these issues in a clinical encounter is important in not only reducing treatment burden but also improving health outcomes and quality of life for COPD patients and their carers.Keywords: COPD, burden of treatment, treatment burden, nominal group technique

Maryam A Hakim,1,2 Frances L Garden,2,3 Matthew D Jennings,4 Claudia C Dobler1,2,3,5 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Liverpool Hospital, 2South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of New South Wales, 3Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, 4Department of Physiotherapy, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia; 5Evidence-Based Practice Center, Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA Background and objective: Patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a high 30-day hospital readmission rate, which has a large impact on the health care system and patients’ quality of life. The use of a prediction model to quantify a patient’s risk of readmission may assist in directing interventions to patients who will benefit most. The objective of this study was to calculate the rate of 30-day readmissions and evaluate the accuracy of the LACE index (length of stay, acuity of admission, co-morbidities, and emergency department visits within the last 6 months) for 30-day readmissions in a general hospital population of COPD patients.Methods: All patients admitted with a principal diagnosis of COPD to Liverpool Hospital, a tertiary hospital in Sydney, Australia, between 2006 and 2016 were included in the study. A LACE index score was calculated for each patient and assessed using receiver operator characteristic curves.Results: During the study period, 2,662 patients had 5,979 hospitalizations for COPD. Four percent of patients died in hospital and 25% were readmitted within 30 days; 56% of all 30-day readmissions were again due to COPD. The most common reasons for readmission, following COPD, were heart failure, pneumonia, and chest pain. The LACE index had moderate discriminative ability to predict 30-day readmission (C-statistic =0.63).Conclusion: The 30-day hospital readmission rate was 25% following hospitalization for COPD in an Australian tertiary hospital and as such comparable to international published rates. The LACE index only had moderate discriminative ability to predict 30-day readmission in patients hospitalized for COPD. Keywords: predictor model, risk prediction, unwarranted variation

Nathan Harb,1,2 Juliet M Foster,3 Claudia C Dobler1–3 1South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of New South Wales, 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, Liverpool Hospital, 3Clinical Management Group, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Background: While chronic morbidity and mortality from COPD is well documented, little is known about the treatment burden faced by patients with COPD.Subjects and methods: Patients with severe airflow obstruction (forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1]

Claudia Caroline Dobler Clinical Management Group, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Abstract: In recent years, there has been renewed interest in screening for active tuberculosis (TB), also called active case-finding (ACF), as a possible means to achieve control of the global TB epidemic. ACF aims to increase the detection of TB, in order to diagnose and treat patients with TB earlier than if they had been diagnosed and treated only at the time when they sought health care because of symptoms. This will reduce or avoid secondary transmission of TB to other people, with the long-term goal of reducing the incidence of TB. Here, the history of screening for active TB, current screening practices, and the role of TB-diagnostic tools are summarized and the literature on cost-effectiveness of screening for active TB reviewed. Cost-effectiveness analyses indicate that community-wide ACF can be cost-effective in settings with a high incidence of TB. ACF among close TB contacts is cost-effective in settings with a low as well as a high incidence of TB. The evidence for cost-effectiveness of screening among HIV-infected persons is not as strong as for TB contacts, but the reviewed studies suggest that the intervention can be cost-effective depending on the background prevalence of TB and test volume. None of the cost-effectiveness analyses were informed by data from randomized controlled trials. As the results of randomized controlled trials evaluating different ACF strategies will become available in future, we will hopefully gain a better understanding of the role that ACF can play in achieving global TB control. Keywords: disease elimination, epidemic, active case-finding, review

Venous thromboembolism is responsible for a significant burden of disease worldwide. Despite the publication of multiple international guidelines, anecdotal evidence suggests significant clinical variation exists in the diagnostic and management pathways of pulmonary embolism (PE). We conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records to examine clinical variation in patients admitted to a tertiary referral center in Australia with a diagnosis of PE between November 2018 and January 2020. Three hundred cases met the inclusion criteria; we found variation in rates of compression ultrasonography, acute investigation of the right ventricle, and planning of repeat imaging at specialist follow-up. Guidelines do not address the use of compression ultrasonography in already diagnosed PE, are conflicting in their recommendation for acute investigation of the right ventricle, and recommend repeat imaging only if there are persistent symptoms at the time of specialist follow-up. The variations we found in this study may in part be due to physician preference or due to the paucity of evidence for some of these diagnostic practices. Robust future studies are required to guide the use of these investigations in PE., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Devesh Thakkar et al.)

Objective: Many biologic agents cause some degree of immunosuppression, which can increase the risk of reactivation of tuberculosis infection (TBI). This risk is variable between individual biologics. We aimed to assess current (and recommended) clinical practice of TBI screening and treatment among patients initiating treatment with biologic agents., Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed via email to members of the Global Tuberculosis Network and associated professional organisations to seek insights into the screening for and treatment of TBI in patients treated with biologics., Results: A total of 163 respondents in 27 countries answered at least one question. For all biologics described in the questionnaire, respondents advised increasing screening relative to current practice. Observed and supported TBI screening rates in patients treated with TNF-a inhibitors were high, especially for older TNF-a inhibitors. Most participants supported TBI screening in patients treated with B- or T-cell inhibitors but not in those treated with interleukin inhibitors. Guideline awareness was higher for TNF-a inhibitors than for other biologic classes (79% vs. 34%)., Conclusions: Although respondents stated that TBI screening rates are lower than what they consider ideal, there was a tendency to recommend TBI screening in patients treated with biologics not known to be associated with an increased risk of TBI. As a result, there is a potential risk of over-screening and over-treatment of TBI, potentially causing harm, in patients treated with biologics other than TNF-a inhibitors. There is a need to research the risk of TBI associated with biologics and for guidelines to address the spectrum of TBI risk across all types of biologics.

Sputum induction is widely used in clinical settings for collection of biological samples from the lower airways. However, in recent years sputum induction has been associated with serious adverse events and even death. This position statement was commissioned by the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand to address major adverse events of two deaths associated with sputum induction that have occurred in Australia in 2021, and outlines best practice for the safe use of sputum induction. The statement resulted from systematic literature searches by a multi-disciplinary group including respiratory physicians, nurses and physiotherapists (paediatric and adults focused). Consumers had input to an advanced draft of the position statement. The position statement covers indications for sputum induction, informed consent, scope of practice of personnel administering the procedure, infection control considerations, details about the sputum induction procedure, safety considerations and risk assessment in clinical settings., (© 2024 The Authors. Respirology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.)

Source Citation: Han MK, Ye W, Wang D, et al. Bronchodilators in tobacco-exposed persons with symptoms and preserved lung function. N Engl J Med. 2022;387:1173-84. 36066078.

Objectives: The treatment workload associated with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is high. The treatment burdens experienced by patients with ESKD are not well understood. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the most important areas of treatment burden for discussion in a clinical encounter from the perspectives of patients with ESKD and nephrologists. We sought to explore possible solutions to these high priority treatment burden challenges., Design: Nominal group technique (NGT) sessions., Setting and Participants: Three in-person NGT sessions were conducted with 19 patients with dialysis-dependent ESKD from one tertiary treatment centre (mean age 64 years; range 47-82). All patients were either retired or on a disability pension; 74% perceived moderate or severe treatment burden; and 90% spent more than 11 hours on treatment-related activities per week (range 11-30). One online NGT session was conducted with six nephrologists from two Australian states., Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was a ranked list of treatment burden priorities. The secondary outcome was potential solutions to these treatment burden challenges., Results: Every patient group ranked health system issues as the most important treatment burden priority. This encompassed lack of continuity and coordination of care, dissatisfaction with frequent healthcare encounters and challenges around healthcare access. Psychosocial burdens on patients and families were perceived to be the most important area of treatment burden by physicians, and were ranked the second highest priority by patients., Conclusions: Discussing treatment burden in a clinical encounter may lead to a better understanding of patients' capacity to cope with their treatment workload. This could facilitate tailored care, improve health outcomes, treatment sustainability and patients' overall quality of life., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Purpose: This scoping review sought to identify objective factors to assist clinicians and policy-makers in making consistent, objective and ethically sound decisions about resource allocation when healthcare rationing is inevitable., Materials and Methods: Review of guidelines and tools used in ICUs, hospital wards and emergency departments on how to best allocate intensive care beds and ventilators either during routine care or developed during previous epidemics, and association with patient outcomes during and after hospitalisation., Results: Eighty publications from 20 countries reporting accuracy or validity of prognostic tools/algorithms, or significant correlation between prognostic variables and clinical outcomes met our eligibility criteria: twelve pandemic guidelines/triage protocols/consensus statements, twenty-two pandemic algorithms, and 46 prognostic tools/variables from non-crisis situations. Prognostic indicators presented here can be combined to create locally-relevant triage algorithms for clinicians and policy makers deciding about allocation of ICU beds and ventilators during a pandemic. No consensus was found on the ethical issues to incorporate in the decision to admit or triage out of intensive care., Conclusions: This review provides a unique reference intended as a discussion starter for clinicians and policy makers to consider formalising an objective a locally-relevant triage consensus document that enhances confidence in decision-making during healthcare rationing of critical care and ventilator resources., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest MC designed one of the tools included in this review but derives no financial benefit whatsoever from its open access use. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

(1) Background: Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is the standard imaging test for the evaluation of acute pulmonary embolism (PE), but it is associated with patients' exposure to radiation. Studies have suggested that radiation exposure can be reduced without compromising PE detection by limiting the scan range (the z -axis, going from up to down); (2) Methods: A literature search was conducted in MEDLINE and EMBASE on 17 July 2021. Studies were included if they enrolled patients who had undergone a CTPA and described the yield of PE diagnoses, number of missed filling defects and/or other diagnoses using a reduced z -axis in comparison to a full-length scan. To assess risk of bias, we modified an existing risk of bias tools for observational studies, the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results were synthesized in a narrative review. Primary outcomes were the number of missed PE diagnoses (based on at least one filling defect) and filling defects; the secondary outcome was the number of other missed findings; (3) Results: Eleven cohort studies and one case-control study were included reporting on a total of 3955 scans including 1025 scans with a diagnosis of PE. Six different reduced scan ranges were assessed; the most studied was from the top of the aortic arch to below the heart, in which no PEs were missed (seven studies). One sub-segmental PE was missed when the scan coverage was 10 cm starting from the bottom of the aortic arch and 14.7 cm starting from the top of the arch. Five studies that reported on other findings all found that other diagnoses were missed with a reduced z -axis. Most of the included studies had a high risk of bias; (4) Conclusions: CTPA scan coverage reduction from the top of aortic arch to below the heart reduced radiation exposure without affecting PE diagnoses, but studies were generally at high risk of bias.

Background: Goals of care (GOC) conversations in the emergency department (ED) are often a brief discussion of code status rather than a patient-oriented dialogue. We aimed to develop a guide to facilitate conversations between ED clinicians and patients to elicit patient values and establish goals for end-of-life care, while maintaining ED efficiency. Paths of ED Care , a conversation guide, is the product of this work., Design: A multidisciplinary/multispecialty group used recommended practices to adapt a GOC conversation guide for ED patients. ED clinicians used the guide and provided feedback on content, design, and usability. Patient-clinician interactions were recorded for discussion analysis, and both were surveyed to inform iterative refinement. A series of discussions with patient representatives, multidisciplinary clinicians, bioethicists, and health care designers yielded feedback. We used a process similar to the International Patient Decision Aid Standards and provide comparison to these., Results: A conversation guide, eight pages with each page 6 by 6 inches in dimension, uses patient-oriented prompts and includes seven sections: 1) evaluation of patient/family understanding of disease, 2) explanation of possible trajectories, 3) introduction to different pathways of care, 4) explanation of pathways, 5) assessment of understanding and concerns, 6) code status, and 7) personalized summary., Limitations: Recruitment of sufficient number of patients/providers to the project was the primary limitation. Methods are limited to qualitative analysis of guide creation and feasibility without quantitative analysis., Conclusions: Paths of ED Care is a guide to facilitate patient-centered shared decision making for ED patients, families, and clinicians regarding GOC. This may ensure care concordant with patients' values and preferences. Use of the guide was well-received and facilitated meaningful conversations between patients and providers., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Tuberculosis (TB) does not respect borders, and migration confounds global TB control and elimination. Systematic screening of immigrants from TB high burden settings and-to a lesser degree TB infection (TBI)-is recommended in most countries with a low incidence of TB. The aim of the study was to evaluate the views of a diverse group of international health professionals on TB management among migrants. Participants expressed their level of agreement using a six-point Likert scale with different statements in an online survey available in English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. The survey consisted of eight sections, covering TB and TBI screening and treatment in migrants. A total of 1055 respondents from 80 countries and territories participated between November 2019 and April 2020. The largest professional groups were pulmonologists (16.8%), other clinicians (30.4%), and nurses (11.8%). Participants generally supported infection control and TB surveillance established practices (administrative interventions, personal protection, etc.), while they disagreed on how to diagnose and manage both TB and TBI, particularly on which TBI regimens to use and when patients should be hospitalised. The results of this first knowledge, attitude and practice study on TB screening and treatment in migrants will inform public health policy and educational resources.

Introduction: Heart disease in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common but neglected comorbidity. Patients with COPD are frequently excluded from clinical trials of treatments aimed at reducing cardiac morbidity and mortality, which has led to undertreatment of cardiovascular disease in patients with COPD. A particular concern in COPD is the underuse of beta (β)-blockers. There is observational evidence that cardioselective β-blockers are safe and may even reduce mortality risk in COPD, although some evidence is conflicting. There is an urgent need to answer the research question: Are cardioselective β-blockers safe and of benefit in people with moderately severe COPD? The proposed study will investigate whether cardioselective β-blocker treatment in patients with COPD reduces mortality and cardiac and respiratory morbidity., Methods and Analyses: This is a double-blind, randomised controlled trial to be conducted in approximately 26 sites in Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and other countries as required. Participants with COPD will be randomised to either bisoprolol once daily (range 1.25-5 mg, dependent on tolerated dose) or matched placebo, in addition to receiving usual care for their COPD over the study duration of 24 months.The study will enrol 1164 participants with moderate to severe COPD, aged 40-85 years. Participants will be symptomatic from their COPD and have a postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) ≥30% and ≤70% predicted and a history of at least one exacerbation requiring systemic corticosteroids, antibiotics or both in the prior 24 months., Ethics and Dissemination: The study protocol has been approved by the Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee at The Concord Repatriation General Hospital., Trial Registration Numbers: NCT03917914; CTRI/2020/08/027322., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Clinicians regularly have to trade benefits and harms to choose between testing and treatment strategies. This process is often done by making global and implicit judgments. A decision analysis is an analytic method that makes this process more explicit, reproducible, and evidence-based. While clinicians are unlikely to conduct their own decision analysis, they will read publications of such analyses or use guidelines based on them. This review outlines the anatomy of a decision tree and provides clinicians with the tools to critically appraise a decision analysis and apply its results to medical decision making. Clinicians reading about a decision analysis can make two judgments. The first judgment is about the credibility of the methods, such as whether the decision analysis addressed a relevant clinical question, included all important outcomes, used the current best evidence to derive variables in the model, and adopted the appropriate time horizon. The second judgment is about rating confidence in the preferred course of action by determining the certainty in the model variables, whether the results are robust in sensitivity analyses and if the results are applicable to a specific patient. Results from a valid and robust decision analysis can inform both guideline panels and the patient-clinician dyad engaged in shared decision-making., (Copyright © 2021 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Little is known about the treatment burden experienced by patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) who use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy., Participants: 18 patients (33.3% males, mean age 59.7±11.8 years) with OSA who use CPAP therapy were interviewed., Methods: Patients treated with CPAP for OSA at a tertiary hospital outpatient clinic in Sydney, Australia, were invited to participate in an interview in person or via phone. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the treatment burden associated with using CPAP. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using NVivo 12 qualitative analysis software., Results: Four categories of OSA-specific treatment burden were identified: healthcare tasks, consequences of healthcare tasks, exacerbating and alleviating factors of treatment burden. Participants reported a significant burden associated with using CPAP, independently of how frequently they used their device. Common sources of their treatment burden included attending healthcare appointments, the financial cost of treatment, lifestyle changes, treatment-related side effects and general discomfort., Conclusions: This study demonstrated that there is a significant treatment burden associated with the use of CPAP, and that treatment non-adherence is not the only consequence of treatment burden. Other consequences include relationship burden, stigma and financial burden. It is important for physicians to identify other negative impacts of treatment burden in order to optimise the patient experience., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Accurate seroprevalence estimates of SARS-CoV-2 in different populations could clarify the extent to which current testing strategies are identifying all active infection, and hence the true magnitude and spread of the infection. Our primary objective was to identify valid seroprevalence studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection and compare their estimates with the reported, and imputed, COVID-19 case rates within the same population at the same time point., Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane COVID-19 trials, and Europe-PMC for published studies and pre-prints that reported anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG, IgM and/or IgA antibodies for serosurveys of the general community from 1 Jan to 12 Aug 2020., Results: Of the 2199 studies identified, 170 were assessed for full text and 17 studies representing 15 regions and 118,297 subjects were includable. The seroprevalence proportions in 8 studies ranged between 1%-10%, with 5 studies under 1%, and 4 over 10%-from the notably hard-hit regions of Gangelt, Germany; Northwest Iran; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Stockholm, Sweden. For seropositive cases who were not previously identified as COVID-19 cases, the majority had prior COVID-like symptoms. The estimated seroprevalences ranged from 0.56-717 times greater than the number of reported cumulative cases-half of the studies reported greater than 10 times more SARS-CoV-2 infections than the cumulative number of cases., Conclusions: The findings show SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence is well below "herd immunity" in all countries studied. The estimated number of infections, however, were much greater than the number of reported cases and deaths in almost all locations. The majority of seropositive people reported prior COVID-like symptoms, suggesting that undertesting of symptomatic people may be causing a substantial under-ascertainment of SARS-CoV-2 infections., Competing Interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE disclosure form. Prof Mary-Louise McLaws is a member of World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program Experts Advisory Panel for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Preparedness, Readiness and Response to COVID-19 and WHO IPC Guidance Development Group for COVID-19. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

The implementation of thickened fluids in patients with dysphagia is widely considered an effective strategy for safe and physiologically improved swallow. However, there is limited evidence to suggest that this intervention reduces the risk of dysphagia-related complications including aspiration pneumonia. In addition, there is growing evidence that this approach is associated with adverse clinical effects including dehydration, malnutrition and reduced health-related quality of life. This review summarises the rationale for thickened fluids, the evidence base (or lack thereof) underpinning their use, and current guideline recommendations., Educational Aims: To review the evidence base for thickened fluids in the management of dysphagia.To examine the evidence that thickened fluids reduce aspiration pneumonia.To provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of thickened fluids in the management of dysphagia., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: S.J. Steele has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S.L. Ennis has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C.C. Dobler has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©ERS 2021.)

Introduction: Patients' burden from lung cancer treatment is not well researched, but this understanding can facilitate a patient-centred treatment approach. Current models of treatment burden suggest it is influenced by a patient's perception of their disease and treatment and their capacity to do the work required to treat their disease., Methods: Sixteen patients and 1 carer who were undergoing or had completed conventional or stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, chemotherapy or immunotherapy for lung cancer in the last 6 months participated in a semi-structured interview. A treatment burden framework was used with three main themes: a) treatment work, b) consequences of treatment and c) psychosocial factors affecting treatment burden., Results: The majority of patients did not feel unduly burdened by treatment tasks, despite having a large treatment-associated workload. Many saw treatment as a priority, causing them to restructure their life to accommodate for it. Patients wished that they would have been better informed about the lifestyle changes that they would have to make before treatment for lung cancer commenced and that the health service would provide services to assist them with this task., Discussion: While there was a large burden associated with lung cancer treatment, patients felt motivated and equipped to manage the workload because the disease was considered severe and life-threatening, and the treatment was seen as beneficial. Before initiating treatment for lung cancer, patients should be informed about lifestyle changes they likely have to make and should be offered assistance., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPT) can affect all organs. Its diagnosis is often challenging, especially when the lung is not involved. Some EPT locations, such as when the central nervous system is involved, are a medical emergency, and some have implications for treatment options and length. This review describes clinical features of EPT, diagnostic tests and treatment regimens., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: D. Natali has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Cloatre has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C. Brosset has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: P. Verdalle has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Fauvy has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J-P. Massart has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Q. Vo Van has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: N. Gerard has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C.C. Dobler has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: P. Hovette has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©ERS 2021.)