Pulmonary

“Pulmonology” is a medical specialty also called “pneumology” or “respiratory medicine” and focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases involving the respiratory tract.

Being one of five non-communicable disease areas, chronic respiratory disease contributes to the highest mortality and morbidity worldwide and includes diseases such as chronic obstructive Pulmonology disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease and Pulmonology hypertension. Since the lungs are directly exposed to the environment, risk factors for lung disease include smoking, occupational exposure and air pollution, though additional risk factors are emerging in the current era such as aging-related multi-morbidities, emerging nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes), climate change and COVID-19.

In recent decades, research has led to groundbreaking findings including better characterization of the developing and adult lung using state-of-the-art methodologies. We have also made progress to better understand pathological disease mechanisms, which has led to the development of numerous clinical trials testing novel pharmacologic agents, but we are far from curing and preventing chronic respiratory disease, especially in an era where aging-related diseases and complications are emerging.

The aim of the section “Pulmonology” of Medicina is to help to propagate state-of-the-art-knowledge and novel findings and observations in the field of acute and chronic respiratory diseases.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Basic and clinical research in all respiratory diseases;
• Novel therapies or therapeutic targets;
• Diagnosis and prevention of respiratory diseases;
• Respiratory disease and beyond—associated comorbidities and inter-organ crosstalk.

• Acute and chronic airway diseases
• Lung fibrosis
• Lung cancer and infection
• Pulmonology embolism
• Pulmonology hypertension
• Prevention
• Pathophysiology and pathobiology
• Development
• Aging
• Prevention
• Environmental diseases