BTS Winter 2014: the RespNET round-up

December is here, which means several things for respiratory physicians: more infective exacerbations, requests from family members for cough remedies, the elusive search for the perfect lung-based present, and of course the BTS Winter meeting!

Scanning through the programme, it’s striking how many familiar names from the NorthEast Thames programme pop out. So, to celebrate all the great research being done in our region below are your RespNET highlights. You can read all the abstracts in this month’s Thorax supplement.

If you are considering doing research you may wish to speak to some of the presenting trainees about their experiences, and to some of the Consultants about their current and future research interests. OOPR takes a lot of organisation so get inspired at the BTS and then start planning ahead.

(I have definitely missed people off the list below so please get in touch and tell me so I can add you/them too!)

Wednesday morning

• Symposium: COPD exacerbations – improving the outcome (Churchill auditorium). Predicting survival in COPD exacerbations. Dr Jennifer Quint
• Spoken session: Clinical management of lung infection (Abbey Room). S17 Cardiovascular risk factors in people with bronchiectasis: a cross-sectional study. V Navaratnam, E Millett, JR Hurst, SL Thomas, L Smeeth, RB Hubbard, J Brown, JK Quint 
• Spoken session: ‘Blood and spit’ – What to measure in AECOPD (St James’s Suite). The relationship between exercise capacity and inflammatory markers at COPD exacerbation AD Alahmari, BS Kowlessar, ARC Patel, AJ Mackay, SE Brill, JP Allinson, R Singh, JA Wedzicha

Wednesday afternoon

• Moderated poster discussion: Tackling tuberculosis (Mountbatten Lounge). Chaired by Dr Marc Lipman. M35 Adverse effects of latent TB treatment in migrants, M40 Tackling poor attendance to TB clinic – who, why and what can be done, and M43 The accuracy of clinical TB diagnoses in culture negative patients, featuring Consultants from Newham, Barts and the Royal London TC O’Shaugnessy, VLC White, and NP Jayasekera
• Symposium: BTS/BLF/BALR Early Career Investigator Symposium (Westminster Suite). Judged by Prof Sam Janes
• Symposium: Treating Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: the dawn of a new era (Churchill auditorium). Novel imaging in IPF. Dr Joanna Porter
• Poster discussion: COPD phenotyping (St James’s Suite). P59 Utility of FIB4 score and liver disease in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (A1ATD). D Bruce-Hickman, AD Saleh, B Gooptu, DA Lomas, D Thorburn, JR Hurst. P68 Time-course of human rhinovirus infection and upper respiratory tract symptoms during COPD exacerbations. SN George, SE Brill, JP Allinson, R Singh, B Kowlessar, RJ Sapsford, GC Donaldson, JA Wedzicha
• Poster discussion: Improving lung cancer outcomes, chaired by Dr Neal Navani. P72 Incidental detection of early stage non-small cell lung cancer – time to implement screening? and P77 Carcinoma in-situ at the bronchial resection margin – a case for routine surveillance with autofluorescence bronchoscopy, featuring JM Brown, PJ George, SM Janes and N Navani
• Poster discussion: Clinical management of pulmonary infection (Abbey Room). P79 Bronchiectasis severity in primary immunodeficiency – a two centre study, featuring JR Hurst, and P81 The increasing secondary care burden of bronchiectasis in England, featuring JR Hurst, J Brown and JK Quint

Thursday morning

• Spoken session: How does clinical respiratory physiology help the clinician? (Westminster Suite). S56 Differences in forced oscillation technique between healthy individuals, OSA and OHS. S Mandel, A Vaughan-France, T Dhir, ES Suh, P Pomilio, R Dellaca, N Hart
• Spoken session: Latent TB and biomarkers (Henry Moore Room). S58 Prospective health economic evaluation of different recommended strategies for TB testing in a contemporary HIV positive cohort. SJ Capocci, J Sewell, C Smith, I Cropley, S Bhagani, S Morris, M Johnson, M Lipman. S60 C-reactive protein reflects mycobacterial load in active TB but cannot be used as a rule-out diagnostic test with J Brown and M Lipman. S61 High levels of latent TB infection, blood-borne viruses, poor treatment outcomes and unmet need among hard to reach groups in London: the TB Reach study from M Lipman. S62 Risk factors for IGRA positivity in contacts of active TB in a UK high-prevalence setting. AC Repossi, RD Turner, GH Bothamley. S63 Investigation of serum biomarkers in TB diagnosis. CD Tweed, GH Bothamley.
• Symposium: Plenary scientific (Churchill auditorium) chaired by Prof Sam Janes
• Symposium: Challenges in TB (Mountbatten Room) chaired by Prof Graham Bothamley

Thursday afternoon

• Poster discussion: Integrated knowledge in practice (Henry Moore room). P113 The use of local anaesthetic in improving the patient experience of arterial blood gases: students and trainers are still not getting the message. Z Mangera, C Gunasekera, J Kinley, J King, B Walker, O Cohen. P Dilworth
• Spoken session: Lung cancer: how are we doing and what’s next? (St James’s suite). S73 Infrared spectroscopy for the detection of extended field carcinogenesis: a new paradigm for lung cancer screening? JM Brown, L Foreman, K Oliver, R Thakrar, A Marechal, P Rich, SM Janes
• Spoken session: Clinical TB (Abbey Room) chaired by Prof Graham Bothamley. S79 Cough prevalence and frequency in pulmonary tuberculosis. RD Turner, AC Repossi, S Matos, SS Birring, GH Bothamley. S80 Impact of peer educators on uptake of mobile x-ray TB screening at homeless hostels: a cluster randomised controlled trial. R Aldridge, S Yates, S Hemming, L Possas, G Ferenando, E Garber, A Hayward, T McHugh, M Lipman, A Story
• Moderated poster discussion: COPD: co-morbidities, deficiencies, and interventions (Mountbatten Room). Chaired by Dr Jennifer Quint. M142 The association between exacerbation frequency and stroke risk, in patients with COPD: a matched case-control study. CL Windsor E Herrett, L Smeeth, J Quint
• Open session: BLF research highlights (Albert Suite). PAR1, thrombin and exacerbation frequency in COPD. Dr John Hurst.
• Spoken session: pulmonary infection: discovery science (Henry Moore Room) chaired by Prof Jeremy Brown. S86 The inflammatory response to Streptococcus pneumoniae is exaggerated by the polysaccharide capsule. JN Periselneris, S Chimalapati, G Tomlinson, A Dyson, C Hyams, H Rukke, F Peterson, M Singer, N Noursadeghi, JS Brown
• Poster discussion: Predicting clinical outcomes in acute respiratory illness (Elizabeth Windsor Room). P157 Cancer patients with severe CAP have poorer outcomes due to increased illness severity and septic shock at admission to intensive care. RJ Jose, AO Mohammad, JP Goldring, RC Chambers, JS Brown, B Agarwal
• Spoken session: New asthma treatments (St James’s suite). S95 Double-blind multi-centre RCT of vitamin D3 supplementation in adults with inhaled corticosteroid-treated asthma (ViDiAs). AR Martineau, BD MacLaughlin, RL Hooper, NC Barnes, DA Jolliffe, AB Choudhury, RK Rajakulasingham, A Bhowmik, DE Simcock, J Grigg, CJ Corrigan, CM Hawrylowicz, CJ Griffiths
• Spoken session: Mechanistic insights in acute lung injury (Albert suite). S100 Proteinase-activated receptor 1 signalling contributes to neutrophilic inflammation and alveolar barrier disruption in Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia. RJ Jose, AE Williams, MG Sulikowski, DA Brealey, JS Brown, RC Chambers
• Poster discussion: TB – non-pulmonary and hepatotoxicity (Westminster suite). P183 Endobronchial ultrasound and tuberculosis: beware the non-caseating granuloma. J Murray, AC Repossi, S Ismail, A Bhowmik, GH Bothamley. 184 Female genital tuberculosis: the long road to diagnosis. JL Potter, SG Leddy, H Kunst, VLC White. P185 Improving the accuracy of microbiological diagnosis of TB lymphadenitis – is a multidisciplinary approach necessary? A Saigal, HS Kalsi, R Sands, A Jayaratnam. P187 The use of moxifloxacin for the treatment of ophthalmic tuberculosis. JL Potter, R Agrawal, C Barraclough, F Rahman, H Kunst, M Westcott. P188 Increased pulmonary M avium intracellulare isolates account for much of the national rise in non-tuberculous mycobacteria incidence 2007-2012. NM Shah, J Davidson, L Anderson, HL Thomas, M Lipman, I Abubaker. P189 Should screening for chronic viral hepatitis in patients with TB be introduced to NICE guidelines? JL Potter, C Hyams, M Shaukat, ZO Babiker, VM Macavei, N Jayasekera, H Kunst, GR Foster, VLC White. P192 Aside from age, do other factors increase the risk of hepatotoxicity in patients treated for latent TB infection? CY Ma, JL Potter, H Kunst, VLC White

Friday morning

• Spoken session: COPD outcomes (St James’s Suite). S104 Double-blind multi-centre RCT of vitamin D3 supplementation in COPD (ViDiCO) AR Martineau, WY James, RL Hooper, NC Barnes, DA Jolliffe, A Bhowmik, RK Rajakulasingam, AB Choudhury, DE Simcock, CJ Corrigan, CM Hawrylowicz, CJ Griffiths. S105 The effects of real-world exposures to diesel traffic emissions on cardio-respiratory outcomes in COPD: ‘Oxford Street 2.’ R Sinharay, B Barratt, J Gong, C Goward, JP Rocha, F Kelly, J Zhang, P Cullinan, KF Chung. S107 Explaining the mortality gap in COPD patients after myocardial infarction: data from the UK Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP). KJ Rothnie, L Smeeth, E Herrett, N Pearce, H Hemingway, A Timmis, J Wedzicha, JK Quint
• Spoken session: Scientific advances in lung cancer (Henry Moore Room). S108 MIF as the key regulator for mesenchymal stem cells homing to tumours by 3D and in vivo lung metastasis models, S109 Mesenchymal stem cells expressing full length TRAIL – a promising therapy for cancer, and S111 Methods to isolate basal cells from the respiratory epithelium, featuring SM Janes.  S112 MMP12 and LM07 are key genes involved in the early pathogenesis of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. VH Teixeira, S Lourenco, M Falzon, A Capitanio, S Bottoms, B Carroll, J Brown, JP George, SM Janes
• Symposium: Controversies in respiratory infection and vaccination (Elizabeth Windsor Room). Future directions in pneumococcal vaccination. Professor Jeremy Brown.

Friday afternoon

• Poster discussion: Lung function testing: new approaches (Rutherford Room). P213 The impact of sleep disordered breathing on peripheral muscle. S Mandal, T Dhir, A Vaughan-France, ES Suh, N Hart
• Poster discussion: Diagnostic and therapeutic interventional procedures (Westminster suite). P220 Role of EBUS-TBNA in the diagnosis of primary and relapsing haematological malignancy. RM Thakrar, G Hardavella, JM Brown, L Succony, M Falzon, E Borg, V Jeebun, M Munnavar, SM Janes, N Navani
• Poster discussion: smoking detection and cessation and non-tobacco products (Abbey room). P283 COPD case-finding and tobacco dependance on long stay psychiatric wards. D Highes, M Jeanneret, F Johansson, K Sherring, L Restrick. P285 Assessing the impact of varenicline initiation during acute hospital admission for current smokers with respiratory diseases: 18-month experience from an inner city district teaching hospital. A Ainley, E Pang, B Coleman, M Stern, LJ Restrick. P286 Recommendations for smoking cessation service provision for smokers with COPD with multiple complex needs: findings from a pilot study. SY Yap, E Pang, S Lunn, C Croft, M Stern.
• Poster discussion: screening and treating sleep apnoea (Elizabeth Windsor room). P290 Validation of preoperative screening algorithm for obstructive sleep apnoea.  VM Macavei, J Mitic, M Berger, OE Mohr, TC O’Shaughnessy