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Advances in Pulmonary Disease Management and Innovation in Treatment

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Respiratory Medicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2026 | Viewed by 360

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Center for Research and Innovation in Precision Medicine of Respiratory Diseases, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, Timisoara 300041, Romania
Interests: severe asthma; COPD; sleep-related breathing disorders; tabaccology; pulmonary rehabilitation; respiratory tract infections

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: severe asthma; COPD; sleep-related breathing disorders; tabaccology; pulmonary rehabilitation; respiratory tract infections; pulmonary vascular disease; interstitial lung disease

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Pulmonary diseases represent a significant burden on global health systems, with increasing prevalence and complexity across diverse populations. Recent advancements in diagnostics, pharmacology, and interventional approaches have significantly improved our ability to manage conditions such as asthma, COPD, interstitial lung diseases, and sleep-related breathing disorders. This Special Issue aims to highlight personalized strategies in pulmonary disease management, from early detection and precision medicine to innovative therapeutic interventions and integrated care models. Particular attention is given to emerging technologies, biomarker-driven treatment pathways, non-invasive ventilation techniques, and smoking cessation programs. We encourage contributions that offer clinical insight and multidisciplinary relevance in the evolving field of respiratory medicine.

Dr. Monica Steluța Marc
Prof. Dr. Florin Mihaltan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • severe asthma
  • COPD
  • sleep-related breathing disorders
  • respiratory tract infections
  • innovative respiratory therapies
  • translational pulmonary research
  • pulmonary vascular disease
  • interstitial lung disease
  • eHealth in respiratory care

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 3726 KiB  
Article
Telemedicine-Supported CPAP Therapy in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Association with Treatment Adherence and Clinical Outcomes
by Norbert Wellmann, Versavia Maria Ancusa, Monica Steluta Marc, Ana Adriana Trusculescu, Camelia Corina Pescaru, Flavia Gabriela Martis, Ioana Ciortea, Alexandru Florian Crisan, Adelina Maritescu, Madalina Alexandra Balica and Ovidiu Fira-Mladinescu
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(15), 5339; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14155339 - 29 Jul 2025
Viewed by 212
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disorder that significantly impacts quality of life and daily functioning. While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is effective, long-term adherence remains a challenge. This single-arm observational study aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes and [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disorder that significantly impacts quality of life and daily functioning. While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is effective, long-term adherence remains a challenge. This single-arm observational study aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes and adherence patterns during telemedicine-supported CPAP therapy and identify distinct phenotypic response clusters in Romanian patients with OSA. Methods: This prospective observational study included 86 adults diagnosed with OSA, treated with ResMed Auto CPAP devices at “Victor Babeș” University Hospital in Timișoara, Romania. All patients were remotely monitored via the AirView™ platform and received monthly telephone interventions to promote adherence when necessary. Clinical outcomes were assessed through objective telemonitoring data. K-means clustering and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) were employed to explore phenotypic response patterns. Results: During telemedicine-supported CPAP therapy, significant clinical improvements were observed. The apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) decreased from 42.0 ± 21.1 to 1.9 ± 1.3 events/hour. CPAP adherence improved from 75.5% to 90.5% over six months. Average daily usage increased from 348.4 ± 85.8 to 384.2 ± 65.2 min. However, post hoc analysis revealed significant concerns about the validity of self-reported psychological improvements. Self-esteem changes showed negligible correlation with objective clinical measures (r < 0.2, all p > 0.1), with only 3.3% of variance being explained by measurable therapeutic factors (R2 = 0.033). Clustering analysis identified four distinct adherence and outcome profiles, yet paradoxically, patients with lower adherence showed greater self-esteem improvements, contradicting therapeutic causation. Conclusions: Telemedicine-supported CPAP therapy with structured monthly interventions was associated with substantial clinical improvements, including excellent AHI reduction (22-fold) and high adherence rates (+15% after 6 months). Data-driven phenotyping successfully identified distinct patient response profiles, supporting personalized management approaches. However, the single-arm design prevents definitive attribution of improvements to telemonitoring versus natural adaptation or placebo effects. Self-reported psychological outcomes showed concerning patterns suggesting predominant placebo responses rather than therapeutic benefits. While the overall findings demonstrate the potential value of structured telemonitoring for objective CPAP outcomes, controlled trials are essential to establishing true therapeutic efficacy and distinguishing intervention effects from measurement bias. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Pulmonary Disease Management and Innovation in Treatment)
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