News & Updates

Use of high flow nasal oxygen (HFO) is feasible during early pulmonary rehabilitation for improving exercise capacity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients after an exacerbation, results of a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) have shown. Additionally, HFO has high patient acceptability.

Baricitinib, ivermectin, and favipiravir stood out in terms of efficacy in a network meta-analysis evaluating various novel oral antivirals for the treatment of COVID-19.

Increased neutrophil-percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) appear predictive of mortality risks in community-dwelling adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suggests a US study.

In the treatment of patients with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis, a 6-month oral regimen consisting of bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, and moxifloxacin (BPaLM) is safe and efficacious and compares favourably with standard of care, as shown in the final data from the phase IIB-III TB-PRACTECAL study.

Both mepolizumab and benralizumab are effective in improving the clinical outcomes of patients with severe eosinophilic asthma, as shown in a recent study. However, treatment with benralizumab appears to be better than mepolizumab in reducing exacerbations, improving forced expiratory volume, and depleting blood eosinophils.

Updates from two MARIPOSA trials presented at ESMO Asia 2023 underpin the potential of amivantamab-based regimens for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (EGFRm NSCLC) in Asian subgroups.

In Singapore, about one in six children and young persons (CYPs) developed long COVID, with persistence of ≥1 symptoms 3 months after an acute COVID-19 infection, a survey study suggests.