Infection & Pulmonary Hypertension Task Force

Type of task force

Disease & Speciality

To enhance education and research activities of the role of infection and pulmonary vascular diseases.

Learning materials

A selection of learning materials and recordings can be found from this Task Force:

2022
2021
2019

2021 Annual Report

The Infection in Pulmonary Vascular Disease (iPVD) Task Force continued to meet over the past year to plan two major projects.

These are:

The 3rd Annual iPVD meeting to take place in Athens in 2022.
The drafting of three translational reviews on the topic of COVID-19 and cardiopulmonary sciences.

We are excited to have finalised the agenda for our annual meeting which will tackle relevant topics such as the current knowledge of cardiopulmonary sequelae of COVID-19 and cutting-edge research on HIV and Schistosoma-associated PAH.

Dr Catherine Blish from Stanford University has been invited to give a special keynote lecture during this meeting, entitled: COVID-19 Current Knowledge and Epidemiology. She has led international efforts to study SARS-COVID to give a state-of-the-art presentation that will guide our discussion on this topic.

2020 Annual report

The infection and pulmonary vascular disease Task Force was established in 2019 by combining the Schistosomiasis Task Force and HIV Task Force, the legacy Task Forces since the foundation of the PVRI in 2006. It was a natural development to enhance and consolidate the interest in the infection as one of the major causes of pulmonary vascular disease globally. It also consolidated the work with the IPVD (Infection and pulmonary vascular disease) Consortium which was established in 2017 to promote awareness and research collaboration on the role of infection in the pathobiology of pulmonary vascular disease.

There have been several activities which can be summarised as follows during the fourth quarter of 2019 and in 2020. The 1st International Conference on the Infection and Pulmonary Vascular Disease was organised in Aswan on 21-22 October 2019 in collaboration with the Magdi Yacoub Foundation. The two day meeting discussed the role of various infections on pulmonary vascular disease, including inflammation and immunology of pulmonary arterial hypertension, HIV and Schistosomiasis co-infection with pulmonary vascular diseases, and epidemiology of Schistosomiasis, HIV and Tuberculosis in Africa. There was a discussion of the future working plan on the role of Tuberculosis and collecting clinical data in Africa and globally.

The 2nd International Conference on the Infection and Pulmonary Vascular Disease was organised in Lima on 29 January 2020, as a pre-conference of the 14th PVRI Annual World Congress on Pulmonary Vascular Disease. The aim was to follow up on the outcomes of the first symposium in Aswan, Egypt, and update on the new findings and techniques in the area of inflammation, infection and pulmonary vascular diseases. This included panel discussions on Schistosomiasis and PVD, update on the emerging data on HIV- Schistosomiasis co-infection in PVD and the potential role of microbiota in pulmonary vascular diseases.

The Task Force in collaboration with IPVD Consortium and the Pulmonary Circulation working group of the American Heart Association organised a special session on the global aspects of PVD and infections at the annual meeting of American Heart Association in Philadelphia 2019.

Another session was planned on the role of double-hit hypothesis on PVD during the Annual American Thoracic Society May 14-19 2020, but this was cancelled because of Covid-19 pandemic and reorganisation of the ATS meeting to a small virtual meeting.

The Task Force and the IPVD consortium also organised ‘On Demand Sessions’ during the American Heart Association annual meeting in 16–18 November 2020. The session entitled “Environmental Risk Factors for Pulmonary Hypertension” was broadcasted live on 18 November 2020.

2020. Drs Ana Mocumbi, Anubha Agarwal, and Vinicio de Jesus Perez shared their data and viewpoints.

The high impact journal Nature Reviews has commissioned the PVRI Task Force and IPVD to write a comprehensive review article on the role of Covid-19 on a potential complication of the pathobiology of pulmonary vasculature. A select writing group is currently working on this review (and other articles) for possible publication in mid-2021.

The plan for The 3rd International Conference on the Infection and Pulmonary Vascular Disease is on hold now because of the uncertainty of Covid-19 pandemic. However, the group is currently in continuous communication among its member through various zoom meetings.

Navneet Dhillon, Vinicio de Jesus Perez and Ghazwan Butrous
References i Butrous G, Mathie A. Infection in pulmonary vascular diseases: Would another consortium really be the way to go? Glob Cardiol Sci Pract. 2019 Mar 31;2019(1):1. doi: 10.21542/gcsp.2019.1. PMID: 31024943; PMCID: PMC6472696.

2019 Annual report

HIV Task Force Merger

The Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute’s HIV Task Force – headed up by Navneet Dhillon and Nicola Petrosillo – has now been subsumed under the Infection & Pulmonary Hypertension umbrella.

This has in no way affected their focus on pulmonary manifestations of HIV, but has allowed for the team to increase the scale of their work. You can visit the HIV Task Forcepage here.

1st International Symposium on Infection and Pulmonary Vascular Diseases – Aswan, Egypt (21-22 October 2019)

The first International Symposium on Infection and Pulmonary Vascular Diseases and meeting of the iPVD consortium¹ took place in Aswan, Egypt from 21-22 October 2019.

- The aim of this meeting was to discuss the emerging issues of the role of infection of the pulmonary vasculature with pulmonary vascular disease specialists, cardiologists; pulmonologists and immunologists; epidemiologists, parasitologists, as well as other infectious disease specialists.

- The meeting format was that of a conversation between pulmonary vascular disease experts and attendees. It was divided into six seminars². This started with a welcome talk from Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, followed by an introductory talk from Professor and founding PVRI member, Ghazwan Butrous.

iPVD Seminars

Day 1

The first seminar was chaired by Professor Stephen Chan, USA, and Dr Ahmed Al Guindy, UK. Discussants were Dr Rajkumar Savai, Germany, and Dr Matthias Clauss, USA, with a special remote presentation given by Dr Soni Savai-Pullamsetti, Germany. They discussed the role of inflammation and immunology on pulmonary arterial hypertension and with infection in particular.

This was followed by a seminar on the epidemiology of schistosomiasis, HIV, tuberculosis in Africa with Professor Ana Olga Mocumbi, Mozambique, and Dr Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, Uganda, with a special remote presentation from Professor Russell Stothard, UK, and Dr Amaya Bustinduy, UK.

The topic of HIV and pulmonary vascular diseases was covered in Seminar 3, which was chaired by Dr Navneet Dhillon, USA, with active participation from Professor Stephen Chan, Dr Vinicio de Jesus Perez, USA, and Dr Matthias Clauss, USA. During this session, Dr Nicola Petrosillo, Italy, presented the clinical aspect of HIV and pulmonary hypertension via an online presentation.

Next up was the subject of schistosomiasis and pulmonary vascular diseases, which was extensively discussed and chaired by with Professor Angel Luis Cogolludo, Spain, and Dr Ahmed ElGuindy, Egypt.

Professor Ghazwan Butrous, UK, and Professor Ana Olga Mocumbi, Mozambique, debated the pathobiology the clinical problem in Africa. This discussion was enriched by Dr Azza Farrag’ special presentation of the past and present of schistosomiasis in Egypt.

The final seminar on the first day, chaired by Professor Butrous, and Dr Clauss, was devoted to the discussion of new unpublished findings with a research project on the role HIV and schistosomiasis co-infection in pulmonary vascular disease.

Day 2

New emerging data was presented by Professors Cogolludo, Edgar Gonzalo Fernandez Malave, Spain, and their research fellow Sandra Medrano Garcia.

There was a remote presentation on the problem of co-infection in Africa by Dr Jennifer Dawns, USA. The seminar was followed by active discussion and feedback that will help to pursue this project.

The final seminar of this meeting was on the 22 October 2019. It was devoted to the clinical and epidemiological matter of infection in Africa and Egypt, reflecting on the clinical and ethnic variation in the management of pulmonary hypertension in these countries.

- This seminar was chaired by Professor Simon Stewart, Australia, with active participation of Professor Karim Said, Egypt, Professor Wafaa El Aroussy, Egypt, and Professor Amany Abouzied, Egypt, and Professor Mocumbi.

- Various topics were discussed, including the role of rheumatic heart diseases, pregnancy; the regional and ethnic variation of the response to the current medication for pulmonary hypertension, as well as the current epidemiological survey and tools in Africa with pulmonary hypertension.

A business meeting of the iPVD was chaired by Professor Butrous and Dr Vinicio de Jesus Perez to plan future activities in this field. These included the education and publication strategy, research projects and collaboration, and potential grant applications. In addition, the current and future structure and function of the iPVD consortium was discussed.

The attendees and faculty enjoyed the welcome reception and the Gala Dinner.

The iPVD consortium would like to thank the Cardiovascular Medical Research and Education Fund (CMFREF) for their generous grant to support this symposium; the Magdi Yacoub Foundation and Aswan Heart Centre, as well as the PVRI Infection & Pulmonary Hypertension Task Force for providing all the logistics.

Notes:

¹ Butrous, Ghazwan, and Alistair Mathie. “Infection in pulmonary vascular diseases: Would another consortium really be the way to go?.” Global cardiology science & practice vol. 2019,1 1. 31 Mar. 2019, doi:10.21542/gcsp.2019.1

² Full recording of the meeting is available at: https://pvrinstitute.org/en/professionals/learning/#

Further information