Surgery alone may not be a curative treatment for GISTs. Targeted therapy with imatinib may play an important role in the treatment of GISTs. Further risk categorisation models may be needed to evaluate GIST behaviour and prognosis.

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Bronchiectasis is a chronic debilitating condition with considerable phenotypic diversity. A vicious cycle of infection and inflammation exists in damaged airways with patients suffering from persistent cough, purulent sputum production, recurrent chest infections and general malaise. The associated burden of disease in terms of increased morbidity, reduced quality of life and the socioeconomic cost of long-term management is significant. Further research is essential to improve our understanding of the development and progression of this disease. This article reviews what is currently known about bronchiectasis, its pathophysiology, aetiology and management strategies.

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Introduction. Although bronchiectasis particularly affects people 65 years of age, data describing clinical characteristics of the disease in this population are lacking. This study aimed at evaluating bronchiectasis features in older adults and elderly, along with their clinical outcomes.Methods. This was a secondary analysis of six European databases of prospectively enrolled adult outpatients with bronchiectasis. Bronchiectasis characteristics were compared across three study groups: younger adults (18-65 years), older adults (66-75 years), and elderly (and >76 years). 3-year mortality was the primary study outcome.Results. Among 1,258 patients enrolled (median age: 66 years; 42.5% males), 50.9% were >65 years and 19.1 >75 years old. Elderly patients were more comorbid, had worse quality of life and died more frequently than the others. Differences were detected among the three study groups with regard to neither the etiology nor the severity of bronchiectasis, nor the prevalence of chronic infection with P. aeruginosa. In multivariate regression model, age (OR: 1.05; p-value: <0.0001), low BMI (OR: 2.63; p-value: 0.02), previous hospitalizations (OR: 2.06; p-value: 0.006), and decreasing FEV1 (OR: 1.02; p-value: 0.001) were independent predictors of 3-year mortality, after adjustment for covariates. Conclusion.Bronchiectasis does not substantially differ across age groups. Poor outcomes in elderly patients with bronchiectasis might be directly related to individual's frailty that should be further investigated in clinical studies.were used as appropriate. The association between 3-year mortality and collected variables was evaluated using uni-and multi-variate logistic regressions reporting odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals [CI]. Age and m-BSI scores were divided in tertiles, while CCI score was dichotomized (i.e., <1 vs. >2), according to their distribution. The covariates were chosen with a priori-selection based on previous research and clinical rationale (i.e., independent association with mortality in elderly patients with respiratory diseases). The calculated p-values were twotailed, with values less than 0.05 considered statistically significant.

patient had polyclonal hypogammaglobulinaemia, but levels were not measured in 11/42 (26%) with potential features of CVID. Conclusion Our study identified a cohort of patients with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis and features associated with CVID. We found that immunoglobulins were not being routinely measured during the work-up of patients with sarcoidosis as recommended by the Map of Medicine. Recent review of 28 local CVID patients identified two who were initially misdiagnosed with sarcoidosis. In one case this misdiagnosis persisted for 8 years. Granulomatous CVID is uncommon, but respiratory physicians should ensure that their routine work-up for sarcoidosis excludes this treatable condition.

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