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details of clinical staffing (medical and
nursing, specialist and non-specialist,
routine and out of hours), workload
figures, provision of NIV service, avail-
ability of high dependency and intensive
care beds. Only by the rigorous inter-
rogation of a much larger data base will
it be possible to take account of various
confounding factors and decide whether
or not resource and organisational
issues are, indeed, responsible for differ-ences in outcome.
New British guidelines for the man-
agement of COPD, produced under the
auspices of the National Institute of
Clinical Excellence (NICE), will be
published early in 2004. Many clinicians
are already anticipating the new evi-
dence based recommendations on the
hospital management of acute exacer-
bations. But it is essential that the new
guidelines are not regarded as aspira-
tional and unachievable in the real
world at a time when, for example, the
majority of patients who need NIV do
not actually receive it despite its provenbenefit and cost effectiveness.7 1 0 1 1
The conclusions of Roberts et al9
should be of great interest to all those
who wish to optimise patient care, and
the results of the audit currently being
undertaken will be eagerly awaited. The
strength of national comparative audits
such as those conducted by the BTS and
CEEU is that they allow teams and
hospitals to compare themselves with
the results being achieved by their peers
and which therefore are, by definition,
achievable. If variations in mortality
rates between hospitals are, indeed,
due to organisational and resource
factors, then much more must be done
to address these. The lack of a national
service framework for respiratory dis-
ease must not be allowed to become an
excuse for not making COPD a local
priority where audit data clearly show
this to be necessary.12
In a recent editorial in Thorax ,Partridge13 highlighted a number of
key areas where we currently fail to
provide adequately for people with
COPD, and pointed out that we all have
an obligation to raise the profile of this
common disease. Admission to hospital
for an acute exacerbation is when our
patients are most vulnerable; ensuring
that appropriate standards of care are
provided is the responsibility of every
respiratory physician.
Thorax 2003;58:914–915
Author ’s affiliation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
M Rudolf, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ealing Hospital, Middlesex UB13HW, UK
Correspondence to: Dr M Rudolf, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ealing Hospital,Middlesex UB1 3HW, UK;[email protected]
REFERENCES1 British Thoracic Society . BTS guidelines for the
management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thorax 1997;52(Suppl 5):S1–S28.
2 Seemungal TAR, Donaldson GC, Paul EA, et al.Effect of exacerbation on quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1998;151:1418–22.
3 Seemungal TAR, Donaldson GC, Bhowmik A, et al. Time course and recovery of exacerbations inpatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2000;161:1608–13.
4 White AJ, Gompertz S, Stockley RA. Chronicobstructive pulmonary disease: the aetiology of exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thorax 2003;58:73–80.
5 British Thoracic Society . The burden of lung disease . London: Munro & Forster Communications, 2001.
6 Lung & Asthma Information Agency (LAIA).Trends in COPD , Factsheet 2003/1. London:LAIA, 2003.
7 Roberts CM, Ryland I, Lowe D, et al. Audit of acute admissions of COPD: standards of care andmanagement in the hospital setting. Eur Respir J 2001;17 :343–9.
8 Roberts CM, Lowe D, Bucknall CE, et al. Clinicalaudit indicators of outcome following admissionto hospital with acute exacerbation of chronicobstructive pulmonary disease. Thorax 2002;57 :137 –41.
9 Roberts CM, Barnes S, Lowe D, et al. Evidence for a link between mortality in acute COPD andhospital type and resources. Thorax 2003;58:947 –9.
10 Lightowler JV , Wedzicha JA, Elliott MW, et al.Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation to treat respiratory failure resulting from exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Cochranesystemic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2003;326:185–7.
11 Plant PK , Owen JL, Parrott S, et al. Cost effectiveness of ward based non-invasive ventilation for acute exacerbations of chronicobstructive pulmonary disease: economic analysisof randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2003;326:956–9.
12 Price D, Duerden M. Chronic obstructivepulmonary disease: the lack of a national serviceframework should not allow us to ignore it. BMJ 2003;326:1046–7.
13 Partridge MR. Patients with COPD: do we failthem from beginning to end? Thorax 2003;58:373–5.
Images in Thorax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Images in Thorax J M FitzGerald, N Muller, J Hogg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introducing a new series, ‘‘Images in Thorax ’’
W ith the exponential increase inmedical knowledge there is a
constant flow of new data.Parallel with the rapid expansion of
knowledge has been the development of
many new and exciting imaging anddiagnostic techniques. At a cellular
level, newer molecular techniques have
allowed us to describe and display nor-mal as well as pathological processes at
a level unimaginable in the recent past.
We would like to build on the recent
advances in imaging and in techniques
available to process pathological speci-mens in a new series in Thorax . This new
series will be called ‘‘Images in Thorax ’’.Submissions should normally consist of
an interesting radiological image, photo-graph, and/or pathological specimen. In
addition to radiological or pathologicalimages, there will also be an opportunity
to submit interesting photographs from
diagnostic procedures. The ability tocorrelate anatomical and pathological
images has been a cornerstone of medi-cal education for centuries. Priority will
be given to images that incorporate
newer technologies which provide ori-ginal insights into pulmonary disease.
The images should be submitted witha 100–150 word commentary and, at
most, one or two key references. It is
anticipated that a maximum of twoimages will be displayed but, in most
cases, one image should suffice. Ideally,
the commentary should emphasisesome key learning points which have
a practical impact on pulmonarymedicine.
These submissions will be reviewed by
the series editors but will not beexternally reviewed and, although
included in the table of contents, willnot be cited on Medline. We look
forward to seeing these submissions. It
is intended that they will be posted onthe Thorax website and, in time, will
become a valuable educational resource,especially for physicians and other
healthcare workers in training.
Thorax 2003;58:915
Authors’ affiliations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
J M FitzGerald, N Muller, J Hogg, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
V5Z 1L8
Correspondence to: Professor J M FitzGerald, VGH Research Pavilion, University of BritishColumbia, 703–828 West 10th Avenue,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1L8;[email protected]
EDITORIAL 91 5
www.thoraxjnl.com
