Closing schools to restrict the spread of influenza during a pandemic is an idea oftern floated, but what effect does it actually have? Thorax’s Journal Club editor Jennifer Quint asks David Earn, professor of mathematics, McMaster University, what his work on the 2009 H1N1 outbreak in Alberta, Canada reveals.

See also:

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1033342

A combination of prednisone, azathioprine, and N-acetylcysteine has been widely used as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, however the safety and efficacy of this three-drug regimen is unknown. Jennifer Quint, Thorax’s Journal Club editor, talks to Fernando Martinez, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, about the controversy surrounding the question, and what his paper on it reveals.

See also:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1113354

Jennifer Quint, Thorax’s Journal Club editor, talks to David Jablons, University of California San Francisco, and consultant for Life Technologies, about his assay to predict survival in resected non-squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer.

See also:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2961941-7/abstract

Jennifer Quint, Thorax’s Journal Club editor, talks to Subroto Paul, Division of Thorasic Surgery at New York Presbrytarian Hospital System, about his study comparing short-term postoperative outcomes following open and thoracoscopic lobectomy.

See also:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22826474

http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2012/08/23/thoraxjnl-2012-202521.full

Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s journal club editor) talks to Dale Needham (associate professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) about his paper recently published in the BMJ:

See also:

http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2124

Ian Pavord (Thorax editor) talks to Peter Gibson (professor of respiratory medicine, John Hunter Hospital, New South Wales, Australia) about non-eosinophilic asthma, particularly neutrophilic asthma.

They discuss the stability of the different inflammatory phenotypes, tools to recognise non-eosinophilic asthma, whether these patients benefit from inhaled steroids, and Professor Gibson’s paper investigating the relationship between H influenzae respiratory infection and neutrophilic asthma.

See also:

Combined Haemophilus influenzae respiratory infection and allergic airways disease drives chronic infection and features of neutrophilic asthma

Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s journal club editor) talks to Paolo Macchiarini (professor in the Advanced Center for Translational Regenerative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm) about using bioartificial scaffolds to replace complex airway defects.

Professor Macchiarini was part of a team who replaced the airway of a tracheal cancer patient with a tailor-made bioartificial scaffold. Their paper was recently published in the Lancet:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2961715-7/abstract#cor1 ,

Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its components. Professor SK Sharma (head of the Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences) has investigated whether treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) would modify these outcomes. Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s Journal Club editor) speaks to him about his results recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

See also:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1103944

Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s Journal Club editor) talks to Onno Mets (Department of Radiology, University Medical Centre Utrecht) about his paper recently published in JAMA:

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1104554

Jennifer Quint (Thorax’s journal club editor) talks to Ann Joseph (Wexler Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota) about whether treating tobacco dependence as a chronic condition results in better short and long term quit rates.