News & Updates

COVID-19 variants delta and omicron BA.1 or BA.2 do not pose a substantial threat of long-term autoimmune complications, except for a modest elevation in inflammatory bowel disease and bullous skin disorders among hospitalized patients during the omicron predominance in Singapore, as shown in a study.

In a nationwide French cohort study, myocarditis attributed to COVID-19 mRNA vaccination causes fewer cardiovascular (CV) events at 18 months of follow-up than that attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infection or myocarditis of conventional aetiologies.

The introduction of targeted biologic therapies has revolutionized the management of severe asthma, where clinical remission is now viewed as a realistic treatment goal. In an interview with MIMS Doctor, Professor Ken Ka-Pang Chan of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, discussed updates in the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2024 Report that reflect recent research findings on clinical remission with biologic therapy. He further highlighted how tezepelumab, a first-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), may help achieve this goal through its broad action on multiple downstream inflammatory pathways involved in asthma pathophysiology.

Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) may be used to distinguish severe (PVR >4 Wood Units) from nonsevere pulmonary hypertension (PVR ≤4 Wood Units) among patients with bronchiectasis-associated pulmonary hypertension (BAPH) and identify those who are at higher risk of mortality, a study suggests.

Patients with a diagnosis of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) are at higher risk of developing lung cancer, reveals a recent study.

A high mortality risk hounds patients with acute exacerbation (AE) of fibrotic interstitial lung disease (FILD) despite treatment with corticosteroids, reports a study, noting that such risk is similar to that seen in those with AE of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).