ERS Assembly 7: Paediatrics

Group 07.01
Chair: Nicole Beydon
Secretary: Stijn Verhulst

This Group comprises scientists and clinicians with an interest in all aspects of paediatric respiratory physiology, ranging from the basic science of ventilation and gas exchange, to the interpretation of clinical measurements. This covers measurement in the lung function laboratory, but also measurements in intensive care, in operating theatres, and during sleep.

We are a very active scientific group and work closely with related working groups and task forces, such as the joint ERS and ATS Task Force on Infant and Preschool Respiratory Function Testing, and the Working Group on Paediatric Sleep Monitoring. As these are rapidly developing fields, exciting new methods (such as those to assess small airways and ventilation homogeneity) are evaluated and discussed. More recently, some of these newer techniques have been applied to infants and young children with chronic lung disease, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia and cystic fibrosis, giving new insight into the pathophysiology of these disorders. In addition, our Group members are also actively involved in assessing control of breathing and lung function during intensive care treatment. Collaboration with other Assemblies or Groups is emphasised at high-quality symposia and other scientific activities.

Group 07.02
Chair: Angela Zacharasiewicz
Secretary: Erol Gaillard

This Group has more than 300 members worldwide, with more and more members coming from the CECEC region. Significantly, an increasing number of abstracts have come from these countries.

Our Group is one of the largest within the ERS. Its aims are to:

• play an active role in developing interesting symposia for the ERS International Congress.
• develop guidelines for the management of recurrent wheezing in young children.
• increase awareness of allergy as a significant health problem in children.
• cooperate actively with the Paediatric Section of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The Group Chair and Secretary welcome any suggestions ERS members might have to achieve its goals.

Group 07.03
Chair: Stojka Fustik
Secretary: Mirjam Stahl

This Group focuses on cystic fibrosis (CF), a complex, challenging and multidisciplinary disease. The symposia and poster sessions during the ERS Congress are a lively platform where paediatricians, paediatric pulmonologists, pulmonologists, microbiologists, radiologists and allied respiratory health professionals meet and discuss their interests.

In CF, new therapeutic strategies and diagnostic tools are applied which often find their way into the treatment of other pulmonary diseases. The care of CF patients is a team effort and we therefore aim for close collaboration with other Groups and Assemblies including Groups with adult pulmonologists with whom we share common interests. We encourage our members to submit their abstracts on CF and give active input.

Group 07.04
Chair: Marijke Proesmans
Secretary: Stefan Unger

Our Group offers a unique opportunity for colleagues from all countries to present and share their experience and research in respiratory infection and immunology, which represents a major part of lung disease in children.

The increasing number of abstracts submitted to our Group for the annual ERS Congress reflects the importance of this area and the dynamism of Group members. More importantly, we offer you the possibility to have an active input in future congresses by suggesting topics and speakers of your interest. To increase the participation of our members in Group activity, not only during the congresses, we decided to prepare some guidelines for the most common paediatric respiratory illnesses, such as croup, bronchiolitis and pneumonia. These guidelines are easily understandable by all paediatricians, especially those from Central and Eastern Europe. The guidelines will be sent to our members before the congress, discussed at the business meeting in Glasgow and then published on the ERS website.

Group 07.05
Chair: Anna Lavizzari
Secretary: Emanuela Zannin

This Group is aimed at intensivists and neonatologists with an interest in respiratory disease – surely all of them! Topics that are of particular interest include neonatal and paediatric resuscitation, ventilatory techniques, the evolving spectrum of chronic lung disease and lung function testing in the intensive care unit.

However, all topics that would involve intensive care are welcomed. The Group is fairly small, giving plenty of opportunity to play an active part, and we manage a high success rate with proposals for symposia and postgraduate courses. In recent years this has included activity on neonatal resuscitation, end of life care and non-invasive assessment of lung function. Planned sessions include a paediatric resuscitation course and a session on the respiratory management of neuromuscular disease in children.

Group 07.06
Chair: Myrofora Goutaki
Secretary: Maribel Casas

This Group consists of epidemiologists, paediatricians and other health professionals and health scientists with interests in the early origins and environmental/genetic contributions to paediatric respiratory disease.

The focus is on common paediatric disorders including asthma and other obstructive diseases, such as bronchiolitis and laryngotracheobronchitis, but also includes respiratory infections, and rare acquired and congenital lung diseases and their long-term outcomes. There are strong associations with the epidemiology Group of the occupation and epidemiology Assembly and with the respiratory physiology, asthma and allergy, and infection and respiratory immunology Groups of the paediatric Assembly. An emerging area of interest is genetic epidemiology. The Chair and secretary welcome suggestions from other Groups or members of the Society for joint workshops, congress symposia and at other sponsored scientific meetings throughout the year.

Group 07.07
Chair: Dirk Schramm
Secretary: Raffaella Nenna

To date, the main interest of this Group has been investigation of the paediatric (upper and lower) airways by endoscopy, including special procedures, such as bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial and transbronchial biopsy, and their respective applications in different respiratory disorders from infancy to adolescence.

Group members are involved in teaching programmes, mainly the annual paediatric hands-on flexible bronchoscopy course (endorsed by the ERS school), held for the first time in 2001. Having completed the above standardisation projects, the scope of activities of our Group will extend, e.g. to noninvasive new imaging techniques, such as virtual endoscopy, as well as noninvasive methods to study airway inflammation in paediatric lung diseases. We are interested in interacting and cooperating with other Groups and would like to encourage ERS members to get actively involved in our Group.

Group 07.08
Chair: Rory Morty
Secretary: Adaeze Ayuk

This new Group within the Paediatrics Assembly focuses on lung and airway development, and the relationship between lung and airway development and respiratory heath during childhood and beyond. It is intended that we will drive cutting-edge, basic science research into lung and airway development, and bridge the gap between basic science and translational paediatric pulmonology.

As a Group we aim to be a platform that facilitates close cooperation between basic scientists working in the arena of lung developmental biology and clinicians actively engaged in the practice of paediatric and adult respiratory medicine. This Group also aims to address the early (paediatric) origins of adult lung disease, and the long-term sequelae of early lung disease. We encourage our members to submit abstracts from their Groups on these and other aspects of lung development, and to give active input into the activities of the Group.