Pulmonary rehabilitation on aerobic capacity and health-related quality of life in patients with sequelae of pulmonary TB

Nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease: an integrated approach beyond antibiotics

Nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary disease (PD) is an emerging condition with heterogeneous manifestations from both the microbiological and the clinical point of view. Diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines are available but there are still unmet patients' and physicians' needs, including therapy-related adverse events, symptom control, management of comorbidities, risk of re-exposure to the pathogen and unfavourable outcomes.

In the present review, we provide currently available evidence for an integrated approach to NTM-PD beyond antibiotic therapy. This includes 1) avoiding exposure to environments where mycobacteria are present and careful evaluation of lifestyle and habits; 2) implementing a personalised pulmonary rehabilitation plan and airway clearance techniques to improve symptoms, exercise capacity, health-related quality of life (QoL) and functional capacity in daily living activities; 3) a nutritional evaluation and intervention to improve health-related QoL and to control gastrointestinal side-effects during antimicrobial therapy, particularly in those with low body mass index and history of weight loss; and 4) managing comorbidities that affect disease outcomes, including structural lung diseases, immune status evaluation and psychological support when appropriate.

An integrated approach, including risk factor prevention, management of comorbidities, nutritional evaluation and intervention and pulmonary rehabilitation, should be considered in the optimal management of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary diseasehttps://bit.ly/2YEqvQg

Post-Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment: The Role of Surgery and Rehabilitation

Even though the majority of tuberculosis (TB) programmes consider their work completed when a patient is ‘successfully’ cured, patients often continue to suffer with post-treatment or surgical sequelae. This review focuses on describing the available evidence with regard to the diagnosis and management of post-treatment and surgical sequelae (pulmonary rehabilitation). We carried out a non-systematic literature review based on a PubMed search using specific key-words, including various combinations of ‘TB’, ‘MDR-TB’, ‘XDR-TB’, ‘surgery’, ‘functional evaluation’, ‘sequelae’ and ‘pulmonary rehabilitation’. References of the most important papers were retrieved to improve the search accuracy. We identified the main areas of interest to describe the topic as follows: 1) ‘Surgery’, described through observational studies and reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, IPD (individual data meta-analyses), and official guidelines (GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) or not GRADE-based); 2) Post-TB treatment functional evaluation; and 3) Pulmonary rehabilitation interventions. We also highlighted the priority areas for research for the three main areas of interest. The collection of high-quality standardized variables would allow advances in the understanding of the need for, and effectiveness of, pulmonary rehabilitation at both the individual and the programmatic level. The initial evidence supports the importance of the adequate functional evaluation of these patients, which is necessary to identify those who will benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation.

Is there a rationale for pulmonary rehabilitation following successful chemotherapy for tuberculosis?

The role of tuberculosis as a public health care priority and the availability of diagnostic tools to evaluate functional status (spirometry, plethysmography, and DLCO determination), arterial blood gases, capacity to perform exercise, lesions (chest X-ray and CT), and quality of life justify the effort to consider what needs to be done when patients have completed their treatment. To our knowledge, no review has ever evaluated this topic in a comprehensive manner. Our objective was to review the available evidence on this topic and draw conclusions regarding the future role of the "post-tuberculosis treatment" phase, which will potentially affect several million cases every year. We carried out a non-systematic literature review based on a PubMed search using specific keywords (various combinations of the terms "tuberculosis", "rehabilitation", "multidrug-resistant tuberculosis", "pulmonary disease", "obstructive lung disease", and "lung volume measurements"). The reference lists of the most important studies were retrieved in order to improve the sensitivity of the search. Manuscripts written in English, Spanish, and Russian were selected. The main areas of interest were tuberculosis sequelae following tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment; "destroyed lung"; functional evaluation of sequelae; pulmonary rehabilitation interventions (physiotherapy, long-term oxygen therapy, and ventilation); and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.The evidence found suggests that tuberculosis is definitively responsible for functional sequelae, primarily causing an obstructive pattern on spirometry (but also restrictive and mixed patterns), and that there is a rationale for pulmonary rehabilitation. We also provide a list of variables that should be discussed in future studies on pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with post-tuberculosis sequelae.