General Objectives

The assignments undertaken by the Centre of Pulmonology focus not only on deep lung behaviour when exposed to various aggressions (environmental, occupational or infectious) but also other areas such as pulmonary oncogenesis, models for assessing air flow, respiratory allergology and interstitial lung diseases.

Pulmonary response to inhalatory aggressions, namely those related to occupational environment, from a clinical and experimental perspective, was the basis of the main task of this Unit: the study of the Defensive structures, the Reaction to injuries, and the consequences in Health and Disease in the Respiratory System.

Of the several projects being developed there were, during the period 2003/2006, 5 strong areas of interest:

- Studies on Lung Cancer, namely related with genes and mutations for metabolizing enzymes and with drug resistance markers through immunohistochemistry

- The Immunology and Clinical ImmunoAllergology studies, namely related with the Asthma European Network, intending to spread excellence in the management of asthmatic patients, at this moment focused on the elderly population, and with the dynamic evaluation of allergic inflammation

- Studies in Interstitial Lung Diseases, specifically the role of Th1/Th2 differentiation in different patterns of interstitial disorders and the genetic expression of mediators of fibrotic evolution. In addition, the mathematical analysis of clinical and laboratory data on clinical decisions is carried out

- The European Network Tobacco-free health services made Coimbra University Hospital the first and leading medical health service free of tobacco in Portugal and there is a strong link with the community in areas of education and prevention

- The studies of genetic polymorphisms in Pulmonary Tuberculosis in the Portuguese patients in comparison with foreign data

The scientific projects are mostly based on the inpatient population (there are 66 ward beds within the Department, included in an Hospital with about 1400 beds) and the outpatient clinic. However, there is also a close connection with the community and the involvement of animal or virtual models, which are developed within a multidisciplinary scope that includes imaging, lung function, morphology and genetic studies.