Respiratory infections

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

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
15. Signs of cardiac involvement

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)
   3. Early (sub-clinical) tuberculosis
   4. COVID-19

1. Common pathogens and their antibiotic sensitivities
2. Uncommon Respiratory pathogens and their meaning in clinical practice
3. Samples and specific pathogens
4. Acid-fast bacilli: number (WHO and CDC USA), interpretation of quality, sputum induction indication and culture versus immunofluorescence (IF) versus PCR
5. Likelihood of a laboratory report being correct (g. Gram-negative pathogens or gonococcal pharyngitis); Nocardia as an acid-fast organism
6. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and targeted next-generation sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other mycobacteria
7. 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 Pneumocytis pneumonia (PCP) due to Pneumocytsis jerovecii (previously carinii)
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 with/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. Principles of inhaled therapy (understand drug delivery and dosing and the reasons to use inhaled antibiotics)
2. When to use inhaled drugs, g. Amikacin in NTM, Colistin in bronchiectasis
3. Delivery modes
4. Indications and challenges of application at an ICU
5. Problems with inhaled therapy

1. Interpreting laboratory results and choosing antibiotics
2. Use of antivirals (g. remdesivir) in epidemics (flu, COVID-19)
3. Antibiotic stewardship and adherence to guidelines
4. Place of corticosteroids
5. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

1. Role of physiotherapy in sputum induction
2. Airways clearance techniques in Bronchiectasis and other Chronic Respiratory conditions with hypersecretion
3. The role of aerobic exercise and muscle strengthening in airways 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. Therapy for pain and psychiatric disorders (anxiety, etc.) associated with Respiratory end-stage conditions

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 including universal precautions for respiratory isolation
6. Cough hygiene
7. Infection surveillance
8. Isolation and reverse isolation, including specific microbes in cystic fibrosis (CF) and bronchiectasis (g. Pseudomonas)
9. Infectious risks to healthcare workers (HCWs)
10. 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. Indications for and management of chest tube insertion
2. Empyema (including complicated parapneumonic effusion)
3. Endopleural lysis

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

1. CAP
2. Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP)
3. Sepsis
4. Bioterrorism
5. Epi/pandemics

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. Choice of empiric antibiotic therapy according to site of infection and risk factors
2. Time to first intravenous antibiotics
3. Use of oxygen (pneumonia versus COPD)
4. 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)

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

1. Acute bacterial and viral bronchitis
2. Chronic bronchitis
3. Aspergillus tracheobronchitis

1. Pathophysiological mechanisms of exacerbation
2. Infectious management of exacerbation, 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. Other viruses and bacteria
3. Differential diagnosis

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

1. CAP (including NHAP and HCAP)
2. Nosocomial pneumonia
3. Non-responding pneumonia (CAP or nosocomial)

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
4. COVID-19

1. Pneumocystis jirovecii
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. Role of invasive diagnostic testing
5. Fungal infections
6. Pulmonary TB

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

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

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
5. Indications for immunoglobulin replacement therapy

1. Indications for screening and follow-up
2. Multidisciplinary approach to secondary immunodeficiency syndromes

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

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

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

1. Assessment of national TB programme
2. Approach to pandemics/epidemics data analysis

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