Case study 1

An 18-year-old man is referred to the respiratory clinic for review of possible asthma

The patient reports receiving a clinical diagnosis of ‘mild asthma’ as a child but has never had formal pulmonary function tests, and has been on PRN salbutamol for years. 

His main complaint is...

The 2020/2021 autumn/winter season presents a significant challenge to the delivery of healthcare services, both in primary care and in hospitals, especially with a resurgence of cases of Covid-19 occurring at the time of writing. At an individual level, the consequences of dual infection with Covid-19 and other...

Covid-19 is a novel pathogenic virus caused by Sars-CoV2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.¹ Most people who are infected with Covid-19 will experience respiratory symptoms but will recover. The HSE estimates about 80% of people will experience the disease as a mild illness and will recover without...

Prolonged bacterial bronchitis (PBB) is a clinicopathological entity first defined in 2006 and recognised by the American,¹ Australian,² British³ and European⁴ pulmonary societies. Although it is a cause of chronic cough and wheeze, it is omitted from the GINA guidelines.⁵ PBB seems likely to be under-diagnosed...

The landscape of pulmonary hypertension medicine has changed greatly over the past quarter of a century and our understanding of this disease has increased greatly. In the 1980s the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the US developed a registry to capture epidemiological data in order to enhance the...