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Background: A good educational climate is essential for delivering high-quality training for medical trainees, professional development, and patient care. The aim of this study was to (1) validate the Dutch Residency Educational Climate Test (D-RECT) in a Danish setting and (2) describe and evaluate the educational climate among medical trainees. Methods: D-RECT was adopted in a three-step process: translation of D-RECT into Danish (DK-RECT), psychometric validation, and evaluation of educational climate. Trainees from 31 medical specialties at Copenhagen University Hospital – Rigshospitalet, Denmark were asked to complete an online survey in a cross-sectional study. Results: We performed a forward-backward translation from Dutch to Danish. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that DK-RECT was robust and valid. The reliability analysis showed that only seven trainees from one specialty were needed for a reliable result. With 304 trainees completing DK-RECT, the response rate was 68%. The subsequent analysis indicated a positive overall educational climate, with a median score of 4.0 (interquartile range (IQR): 3.0–5.0) on a five-point Likert scale. Analysis of the subscales showed that the subscale Feedback received the lowest ratings, while Supervision and Peer collaboration were evaluated highest. Conclusions: Psychometric validation of D-RECT in a Danish context demonstrated valid results on the educational climate in specialist training. DK-RECT can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in the future and can facilitate the conversation on the educational climate.

Background: Corticosteroid treatment for acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) reduces the length of hospital stay. Corticosteroid-sparing regimens have showed non-inferiority to higher accumulated dose regimens regarding re-exacerbation risk in patients with AECOPD. However, it remains unknown, if higher accumulated dose regimens as compared to low-medium accumulated dose regimens, leads to shorter admissions and changes in mortality risk. We explored this by analysing the number of days alive and out of hospital (DAOH). Methods: We pooled individual patient data from the two available multicentre RCTs on corticosteroid-sparing regimens for AECOPD: REDUCE (n=314) and CORTICO-COP trial (n=318). Patients randomly allocated to 14 days regimen were compared to 2–5 days regimens, adjusting for confounders. Results: DAOH within 14 days from recruitment was higher for the low–medium (mean 8.3 days;(95%CI) 7.9–8.7) than the high accumulated regimen group (4.2 days; 3.6–4.9;p <.001). High accumulated regime AECOPD group had longer hospital stays, decreased likelihood of discharge within 30 days (HR, 0.6 [0.5–0.7];p<.0001), no differences in the composite endpoint ‘death or ICU admission’ (OR, 1.4 [0.9–2.3];p =.25), new or aggravated hypertension (OR, 1.5 [0.9–2.7]; p=0.15), or mortality risk (HR, 0.8 [0.4–1.5];p= .45) during the 6-month follow-up. Conclusion: Higher corticosteroid dose regimens were associated with longer hospital stays and fewer DAOH within 14 days, with no apparent 6-month benefit regarding death or admission to ICU in COPD patients

Objective: Hydroxychloroquine has been proposed as a primary prophylactic agent against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to investigate if patients treated with hydroxychloroquine for a non-COVID-19 indication had a lower risk of verified infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) compared with matched controls. Methods: A cohort comprising all persons in Denmark collecting hydroxychloroquine prescriptions in 2020 and 2019 (i.e., both during and before SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed in Denmark), matched by age and sex with controls, was studied. Data were collected using the Danish national registries, which contain complete information on patient health data, prescriptions and microbiological test results. The main outcome was microbiologically verified SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results: In total, 5488 hydroxychloroquine users were matched with 54,486 non-users. At baseline, the groups differed in terms of diagnoses of pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, gastrointestinal/metabolic disease and dementia, as well as treatment with antirheumatic drugs. The final model was adjusted for these potential confounders. Use of hydroxychloroquine for non-COVID-19 indications was not associated with any change in confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (hazard ratio 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.76–1.07). This result was robust in the propensity-score-matched sensitivity analysis. Conclusion: This study, which is the largest to date to investigate the primary prophylactic effect of hydroxychloroquine against SARS-CoV-2, does not support any prophylactic benefit of hydroxychloroquine in the prevention of infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Background Systemic corticosteroid administration for severe acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) reduces the duration of hospital stays. Corticosteroid-sparing regimens have showed non-inferiority to higher accumulated dose regimens regarding re-exacerbation risk in patients with AECOPD. However, it remains unclear whether 14-day or 2-5-day regimens would result in shorter admission durations and changes in mortality risk. We explored this by analysing the number of days alive and out of hospital based on two randomised controlled trials with different corticosteroid regimens. Methods We pooled individual patient data from the two available multicentre randomised trials on corticosteroid-sparing regimens for AECOPD: the REDUCE (n = 314) and CORTICO-COP (n = 318) trials. In the 14-day regimen group, patients were older, fewer patients received pre-treatment with antibiotics and more patients received pre-treatment with systemic corticosteroids. Patients randomly allocated to the 14-day and 2-5-day regimens were compared, with adjustment for baseline differences. Results The number of days alive and out of hospital within 14 days from recruitment was higher for the 2-5 day regimen group (mean 8.4 days; 95% confidence interval [CI] 8.0-8.8) than the 14-day regimen patient group (4.2 days; 95% CI3.4-4.9; p < 0.001). The 14-day AECOPD group had longer hospital stays (mean difference, 5.4 days [standard error +/- 0.6]; p < 0.0001) and decreased likelihood of discharge within 30 days (hazard ratio [HR] 0.5; 95% CI 0.4-0.6; p < 0.0001). Comparing the 14-day regimen and the 2-5 day regimen group showed no differences in the composite endpoint 'death or ICU admission' (odds ratio [OR] 1.4; 95% CI 0.8-2.3; p = 0.15), new or aggravated hypertension (OR 1.5; 95% CI 0.9-2.7; p = 0.15), or mortality risk (HR 0.8; 95% CI 0.4-1.5; p = 0.45) during the 6-month follow-up period. Conclusion 14-day corticosteroid regimens were associated with longer hospital stays and fewer

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The concept of clinical control in COPD has been developed to help in treatment decisions, but it requires validation in prospective studies.METHODS: This international, multicentre, prospective study aimed to validate the concept of control in COPD. Patients with COPD were classified as controlled/uncontrolled by clinical criteria or CAT scores at baseline and followed up for 18 months. The main outcome was the difference in rate of a composite endpoint of moderate and severe exacerbations or death over the 18-month follow-up period.RESULTS: A total of 307 patients were analysed (mean age = 68.6 years and mean FEV1 % = 52.5%). Up to 65% and 37.9% of patients were classified as controlled by clinical criteria or CAT, respectively. Controlled patients had significantly less exacerbations during follow-up (by clinical criteria: 1.1 vs 2.6, P < 0.001; by CAT: 1.1 vs 1.9, P = 0.014). Time to first exacerbation was significantly prolonged for patients controlled by clinical criteria only (median: 93 days, IQR: 63; 242 vs 274 days, IQR: 221; 497 days; P < 0.001). Control status by clinical criteria was a better predictor of exacerbations compared to CAT criteria (AUC: 0.67 vs 0.57).CONCLUSION: Control status, defined by easy-to-obtain clinical criteria, is predictive of future exacerbation risk and time to the next exacerbation. The concept of control can be used in clinical practice at each clinical visit as a complement to the current recommendations of initial treatment proposed by guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Treatment with systemic corticosteroids in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with debilitating adverse effects. Therefore, strategies to reduce systemic corticosteroid exposure are urgently required and might be offered by a personalised biomarker-guided approach to treatment. The aim of this study was to determine whether an algorithm based on blood eosinophil counts could safely reduce systemic corticosteroid exposure in patients admitted to hospital with acute exacerbations of COPD.METHODS: We did a multicentre, randomised, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial at the respiratory departments of three different university-affiliated hospitals in Denmark. Eligible participants were patients included within 24h of admission to the participating sites, aged at least 40 years, with known airflow limitation (defined as a post-bronchodilator FEV1/forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio ≤0·70) and a specialist-verified diagnosis of COPD, who were designated to start on systemic corticosteroids by the respiratory medicine physician on duty. We randomly assigned patients (1:1) to either eosinophil-guided therapy or standard therapy with systemic corticosteroids. Both investigators and patients were aware of the group assignment. All patients received 80 mg of intravenous methylprednisolone on the first day. The eosinophil-guided group were from the second day given 37·5 mg of prednisolone oral tablet daily (for a maximum of up to 4 days) on days when their blood eosinophil count was at least 0·3 × 109 cells per L. On days when the eosinophil count was lower, prednisolone was not administered. If a patient was discharged during the treatment period, a treatment based on the last measured eosinophil count was prescribed for the remaining days within the 5-day period (last observation carried forward). The control group received 37·5 mg of prednisolone tablets daily from the second day for 4

Anthony CA Yii,1 CH Loh,1 PY Tiew,2,3 Huiying Xu,4 Aza AM Taha,1 Jansen Koh,1 Jessica Tan,5 Therese S Lapperre,6,7 Antonio Anzueto,8 Augustine KH Tee1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Changi General Hospital, Singapore; 2Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; 3Translational Respiratory Research Laboratory, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; 4Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore; 5Department of General Medicine, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore; 6Department of Respiratory Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; 7Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, Singapore; 8Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, UT Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA Background: Assessing risk of future exacerbations is an important component in COPD management. History of exacerbation is a strong and independent predictor of future exacerbations, and the criterion of ≥2 nonhospitalized or ≥1 hospitalized exacerbation is often used to identify high-risk patients in whom therapy should be intensified. However, other factors or “treatable traits” also contribute to risk of exacerbation.Objective: The objective of the study was to develop and externally validate a novel clinical prediction model for risk of hospitalized COPD exacerbations based on both exacerbation history and treatable traits.Patients and methods: A total of 237 patients from the COPD Registry of Changi General Hospital, Singapore, aged 75±9 years and with mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 60%±20% predicted, formed the derivation cohort. Hospitalized exacerbation rate was modeled using zero-inflated negative binomial regression. Calibration was assessed by graphically comparing the agreement between predicted an

Background: Chronic non-specific respiratory symptoms are difficult to manage. This trial aimed to evaluate the association between baseline fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) and the response to inhaled corticosteroids in patients with non-specific respiratory symptoms. Methods: In this double-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial, we enrolled undiagnosed patients, aged 18-80 years, with cough, wheeze, or dyspnoea and less than 20% bronchodilator reversibility across 26 primary care centres and hospitals in the UK and Singapore. Patients were assessed for 2 weeks before being randomly assigned (1: 1) to 4 weeks of treatment with extrafine inhaled corticosteroids (QVAR 80 mu g, two puffs twice per day, equivalent to 800 mu g per day beclomethasone dipropionate) or placebo. Randomisation was stratified by baseline FENO measurement: normal (<= 25 parts per billion [ppb]), intermediate (>25 tp <40 ppb), and high (>= 40 ppb). The primary endpoint was change in Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ7) mean score. We used generalised linear modelling to assess FENO as a predictor of response, estimating an interaction effect between FENO and treatment on change in ACQ7. We did our primary and secondary analyses in the per-protocol set, which excluded patients with non-completion of the primary endpoint, non-compliance to treatment (ascertained by patient report), and study visits made outside the predefined visit windows. This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02294279. Findings: Between Feb 4, 2015, and July 12, 2016, we randomly assigned 294 patients to extrafine inhaled corticosteroid treatment (n=148) or placebo (n=146). Following exclusions due to protocol violations, we analysed 214 patients (114 extrafine inhaled corticosteroids and 100 placebo). We observed a significant interaction between baseline FENO and treatment group for every 10 ppb increase in baseline FENO, with the change in ACQ7 greater in the extrafine inhaled cortico