Respiratory infections

1. Indications
2. Medical thoracoscopy with biopsy: indications
3. Pleural fluid and pleural biopsy samples for culture

1. Miliary TB pattern
2. Mediastinal lymph nodes
3. Lung cavities
4. Halo-sign
5. Septic emboli
6. Abscess
7. Hydatid cyst
8. Sequestrum
9. Signs of pleural infection/parapneumonic effusion
10. Atelectasis signs
11. Signs of bronchiectasis
12. Consolidation and air bronchogram sign
13. Ground glass opacities
14. Solitary nodule

1. Thoracic ultrasound to guide thoracentesis/aspiration
2. ICU patients that cannot be moved
3. Pneumonia diagnosis
4. Empyema diagnosis
5. Complicated parapneumonic effusion

1. Aspergillus-related appearances
2. Tree-in-bud sign and infections
3. Bronchiectasis
4. Non-resolving pneumonia
5. Cryptogenic organising pneumonia
6. Empyema
7. Mediastinal lymph nodes
8. Bronchopleural fistula
9. Radiological signs of:
   1. Diseases associated with Aspergillus
   2. Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM)

1. Common pathogens and their antibiotic sensitivities
2. Samples and specific pathogens
3. Acid-fast bacilli: number, interpretation of quality, sputum induction indication and culture versus immunofluorescence (IF) versus PCR
4. Likelihood of a laboratory report being correct (e.g. Gram-negative pathogens or gonococcal pharyngitis); Nocardia as an acid-fast organism
5. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and targeted next-generation sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other mycobacteria
6. GeneXpert

1. Conventional microbiological methods such as Gram staining, culture and sensitivity testing for different pathogens, such as atypical bacteria, viruses and fungi, and for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (known in the past as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP))
2. Indications for and collection of biological specimens, Gram staining, culture, molecular methods, IF and genetic testing
3. Interferon gamma release assay, interpretation of microbiological results provided by BAL, quantitative culture, particularities in immunocompromised patients, particularities in nosocomial infection and types of sputum harvest (spontaneous, induced and bronchial aspirate)
4. Airway microbiome in relation to relation to epigenetic and transcriptomic profiles in lung tissue
5. Microbiologic diagnosis of TB (smear examination, liquid and solid culture media, molecular study of resistance and phenotypic/genotypic methods)

1. Problems with inhaled therapy
2. When to use inhaled drugs, e.g. amikacin in bronchiectasis
3. Delivery modules
4. Indications and application at an ICU

1. Interpreting laboratory results and choosing antibiotics
2. Use of antivirals in flu epidemics
3. Antibiotic stewardship and adherence to guidelines
4. Place of corticosteroids
5. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

1. Role of physiotherapy in sputum induction
2. Postural drainage in bronchiectasis
3. Muscle strengthening
4. Aerobic exercise as a method for airway clearance

1. Rehabilitation and airway clearance to help reduce exacerbations of chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD and bronchiectasis
2. Prevention of infections

1. Oxygen therapy
2. Sedation
3. Pain therapy

1. Vaccination
   1. Influenza
   2. Pneumococcal
   3. Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG)
   4. Other vaccinations
2. Smoking cessation
3. Dental care
4. Aspiration management
5. Infection control
6. Cough hygiene
7. Infection surveillance
8. Universal precautions for respiratory isolation
9. Isolation and reverse isolation, including specific microbes in cystic fibrosis (CF) and bronchiectasis (e.g. Pseudomonas)
10. Infectious risks to healthcare workers (HCWs): control and elimination of TB including the BCG vaccine
11. Segregation under infection control and relevance to CF and TB
12. Study of TB patient contacts, TB isolation criteria and indications for diagnosis and treatment of TB
13. Role of air pollution

1. Empyema
2. Indications for and management of chest tube insertion
3. Endopleural lysis

1. Course of opportunistic infections after lung transplantation
2. Differentiation between organ rejection and infection
3. Prophylaxis
4. Post-transplant management

1. CAP
2. Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP)
3. Sepsis
4. Bioterrorism

Differential diagnosis using clinical and radiological findings of infectious diseases (i.e. those caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, mycobacteria and other difficult-to-treat microorganisms) in contrast with those of non-infectious disorders

1. Time to first intravenous antibiotics
2. Use of oxygen (pneumonia versus COPD)
3. Sepsis

1. CAP
2. HAP
3. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
4. NHAP

1. Common upper respiratory tract syndromes (including acute infective rhinitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis, epiglottitis, laryngotracheitis and tonsillitis)
2. Allergies and the upper respiratory tract

1. Molecular mechanisms of exacerbation
2. Infectious management of exacerbation
3. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis
4. Infectious causes of eosinophilia

Acute bacterial and viral bronchitis

1. Molecular mechanisms of exacerbation
2. Infectious management of exacerbation, i.e. viral and bacterial
3. Immunomodulatory therapy
4. Risks associated with inhaled corticosteroids
5. Vaccination
6. Bacterial colonisation
7. Long-term macrolides

1. Respiratory syncytial virus
2. Differential diagnosis
3. Other viruses and bacteria

1. Diagnostic and aetiological work-up
2. Management of exacerbation
3. Bacterial and non-bacterial surveillance
4. Eradication
5. Long-term antibiotic and immunomodulatory therapy
6. Vaccination
7. Rehabilitation
8. Respiratory physiotherapy
9. Classification severity
10. Haemoptysis and management

1. CAP (including NHAP and HCAP)
2. Nosocomial pneumonia
3. Specific risk factors

1. Diagnostic methods in radiology and ultrasound parapneumonic effusion and empyema pleuritis
2. Indication for large-bore pleural drainage
3. Indication for medical and surgical thoracoscopy
4. Evaluating the accuracy of microbiological methods

1. Choice and duration of antibiotic treatment in particular situations, such as intravenous drug users, and aspiration
2. Surgical intervention

1. Population groups with a worse prognosis
2. Infection control
3. Medical treatment

1. PCP
2. Empirical antibiotic selection and treatment particularities in patients with acquired immunodeficiency, neutropenic patients, patients with solid organ malignancy, lung and other solid organ transplant recipients, haematopoietic cell transplant recipients, patients with other haematological conditions, patients with secondary immunodeficiency induced by drugs and biologicals and patients with primary immune deficiency syndromes
3. Antibiotic prophylaxis
4. Indication for immunoglobulins
5. Role of invasive diagnostic testing
6. Diabetes
7. Lupus
8. Fungal infections
9. Pulmonary TB

1. Choice of antibiotics
2. Prognosis
3. Supportive care
4. Preventative measures
5. Risk factors for aspiration pneumonitis

1. Consideration of TB in the differential diagnosis of respiratory infections
2. Epidemiology, burden of disease and risk factors: know when to investigate and what tests to ask for
3. Indication for isolation and discontinuation of isolation
4. Risk factors for MDR/XDR TB
5. Drug susceptibility and treatment
6. Directly observed therapy (DOT) / Video observed therapy (VOT)
7. Miliary TB
8. Adverse events (AEs)
9. Diagnostic tests
10. Molecular tests
11. WGS

1. Differential diagnosis
2. Diagnosis of lymphatic TB and indication for EBUS
3. Rate of associations with pulmonary TB
4. Role of immunological tests for increasing the probability of diagnosis in patients with relevant risk factors and symptoms
5. Pleural TB

1. Diagnosis
2. Contact investigation
3. Treatment
4. Surveillance of side effects
5. Alternative regimens in case of AEs
6. Treatment of latent TB infection in immunocompromised patients
7. Selection of candidates to treat

1. Adherence to diagnostic criteria
2. Indication for treatment
3. Treatment
4. Monitoring of drug responses including relapse, re-infection and cure
5. Epidemiology and risk factors for NTM
6. Clinical presentation of NTM diseases
7. HIV co-infection
8. Immunosuppression

1. Management of pneumonia
2. Rationale for the use of guidelines for antibiotic therapy
3. Management of severe exacerbation of COPD

1. Differential diagnosis and testing
2. Treatment
3. Antibiotics
4. When to perform surgery
5. Oesophageal perforations
6. Transoesophageal fistulae

1. Patterns of pulmonary involvement in primary immunodeficiency disorders
2. Recognition, assessment and management of the severity of respiratory disease in patients with primary immunodeficiency disorders
3. Appropriate vaccination and prophylaxis regimens
4. Emphasise the most common primary immunodeficiency syndromes

Indications for screening

1. Diagnosis and differential diagnosis
2. Infection control and cross-infection
3. Infection surveillance
4. Microbiological evaluation
5. Universal precautions
6. Isolation and reverse isolation
7. Physiotherapy
8. Particularities in treatment (pharmacokinetics)
9. Immunomodulatory drugs
10. Antibiotic management for eradication
11. Suppression
12. Acute exacerbation
13. New CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-specific medications
14. Non-respiratory management
15. CFTR modulators
16. NTM infections in CF
17. When and how to go for screening

1. Differential diagnosis and recognition of primary ciliary dyskinesia
2. Diagnostic testing
3. Diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia
4. α1-antitrypsin

1. Hepatitis
2. TB screening in HCWs
3. TB prevention in HCWs
4. TB infection control training for HCWs
5. Precautions for pregnant HCWs: measles, influenza and TB
6. Zoonosis
7. Influenza in exposed HCWs

Assessment of national TB programme

1. Alcohol abuse
2. Smoking including electronic cigarettes, marijuana and water pipes