Här är programmet med presentation av föreläsarna och abstracts.

Professor Brigita Sitkauskiene
Leg. sjukgymnast Gun Faager
Brigita Sitkauskiene
Associated Professor at the Kaunas
University of Medicine,
Department of Pulmonology and
Immunology.
Head of the Division for Allergology
and Clinical Immunology at the Kaunas
Medical University Hospital, Lithuania.
Brigita Sitkauskiene gained her PhD in
2003 for her thesis ”Implication of eosinophils
in obstructive lung diseases
and their kinetics in experimental allergic
inflammation”.
Her research focuses on mechanisms
of airway inflammation in chronic
obstructive lung diseases and cough
reflex sensitivity. She has won the “ERS
COPD Local Award” 2002 (Stockholm),
Annual Award of LIPAM’2007
(Vilnius).
Besides many other duties, Brigita
Sitkauskiene is a member of the Executive
Committee of the European
Academy of Allergology and Clinical
Immunology (EAACI Member-at-
Large), the Board of the Lithuanian
Society of Pulmonology and Allergy
and the European Respiratory Society
(ERS). She is Editorial Advisor of
the Journal of Respiratory Medicine,
Consultant of the Lithuanian Ministry
of Health; responsible for Allergy and
Clinical Immunology, Coordinator of
the GA2LEN collaborating centre -
Kaunas University of Medicine.
Alpha1-register in Lithuania.
Airway inflammation in asthma and
COPD is associated with an increased
expression and release of inflammatory
reactants that regulate processes
of cell migration, activation and degranulation.
In COPD an abnormal
inflammatory response of the lung is
predominantly related to long-term
tobacco smoking or toxic gas inhalation.
However, there is consistent
evidence that only 15-30% of smokers
develop chronic airflow obstruction,
suggesting that the risk for COPD results
from a gene-environment interaction.
The best described genetic risk
factor for COPD is hereditary deficiency
of alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT), a
genetic disorder most commonly seen
in Caucasians. However, AAT deficiency
is an under-diagnosed condition
world-wide.
Screening for AAT deficiency in a
cohort of 1167 COPD patients in Lithuania
showed for the first time that
the PI*Z gene frequency is about twofold
higher among COPD patients
compared to the general population
of Lithuania. Calculated gene frequencies
for PI*S and PI*Z were 18.8 and
25.3 per 1000 in COPD patients. The
prevalence of COPD in Lithuania has
not been reported, but it estimated to
be similar to that in other European
countries: 8-10% in the population
>40 years.
This implies about 150 000 Lithuanian
people may suffer from this disease, and
that approximately 100 ZZ subjects remain
undiagnosed in the COPD population.
These results support the general
concept of targeted screening for AAT
deficiency in countries like Lithuania,
with a large population of COPD patients
and low awareness among caregivers
about this genetic condition.
Leg. sjukgymnast Gun Faager,
specialistkompetens i lungmedicin.
Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Sthlm
Gun Faager arbetar som sjukgymnast
och med rehabilitering av patienter
med lungsjukdom vid Karolinska
Universitetssjukhuset, Solna. Gun är
doktorand vid Karolinska Institutet
och kommer att disputera i december
med en avhandling som gäller olika
strategier vid träning av patienter med
KOL.
Fysisk träning vid KOL
Patienter med KOL utvecklar successivt
en lägre fysisk kapacitet och muskelstyrka.
Fysisk träning har därför blivit
en av hörnstenarna inom lungrehabilitering.
Forskning har visat att patienter
med KOL som deltagit i lungrehabilitering
har minskad dyspné, förbättrad
fysisk kapacitet, muskelstyrka och hälsorelaterad
livskvalitet. Ämnet är stort
och ännu ganska outforskat, men jag
ska försöka ge er en aktuell bild.
Docent Eeva Piitulainen
Eeva Helena Piitulainen, MD, PhD,
Associate professor of Respiratory Medicine
at Lund University, Sweden.
Rapport om tillväxt och
resultat gällande det svenska
AAT-registret.
Docent Eeva Piitulainen är överläkare
på Sektionen för lungmedicin vid Medicinska
kliniken, Universitetssjukhuset
MAS, Malmö. Hennes forskning omfattar
kliniska och epidemiologiska
studier om alfa-1-antitrypsinbrist.
Hon är ansvarig för det svenska nationella
registret över patienter med
alfa-1-antitrypsinbrist och representerar
Sverige i AIR (Alpha One International
Registry), som är det internationella
registret över patienter med
AAT-brist.