Eesti Reumatoloogia Selts

<b>Objective:</b> Lung cancer (LC) screening with low-dose CT (LDCT) is aimed to detect early-stage LC. However, besides LC, also other pulmonary and extrapulmonary findings are frequent. Aim of the study was to evaluate patients with incidental pulmonary emphysema and define cases of undiagnosed COPD. <b>Methods:</b> In three family physician practices, all 55–74-year-old patients with elevated LC risk either according to smoking status (&gt;20 pack-years; quit &lt;15 years ago) or LC risk score (PLCOm2012noRace &gt;1.5) were referred to LDCT, and the results were evaluated according to LungRADS version 1.1 protocol by two radiologists. Also, incidental findings were recorded. All radiologically verified emphysema cases were evaluated by study pneumologist, majority of the patients were invited to spirometry and out-patient visit. <b>Results:</b> Out of total 7035 patients, 495 (7.0%) were 55–74 years old current or previous smokers, 206 had elevated LC risk and were referred to LDCT. 201 ended up taking it and 186 of them (92.5%) had one or several incidental findings, most commonly coronary atherosclerosis (120 patients). 115 (57.2%) patients had pulmonary emphysema on CT. 20 (17.4%) patients had previously diagnosed COPD. 101 (87.8%) were referred to and 95 visited pneumologist. Eight new COPD cases were diagnosed (7.0% of patients with emphysema on CT), all but 1 had COPD symptoms. <b>Conclusions:</b> Incidental findings including emphysema were common on LC screening CT. While 17.4% of patients with radiologically evident emphysema had previous COPD diagnosis, 7.0% were undiagnosed. LC screening patients with radiologically detected emphysema and corresponding symptoms might have undiagnosed COPD.

Global climate change is driving species' distributions towards the poles and mountain tops during both non-breeding and breeding seasons, leading to changes in the composition of natural communities. However, the degree of season differences in climate-driven community shifts has not been thoroughly investigated at large spatial scales. We compared the rates of change in the community composition during both winter (non-breeding season) and summer (breeding) and their relation to temperature changes. Based on continental-scale data from Europe and North America, we examined changes in bird community composition using the community temperature index (CTI) approach and compared the changes with observed regional temperature changes during 1980-2016. CTI increased faster in winter than in summer. This seasonal discrepancy is probably because individuals are less site-faithful in winter, and can more readily shift their wintering sites in response to weather in comparison to the breeding season. Regional long-term changes in community composition were positively associated with regional temperature changes during both seasons, but the pattern was only significant during summer due to high annual variability in winter communities. Annual changes in community composition were positively associated with the annual temperature changes during both seasons. Our results were broadly consistent across continents, suggesting some climate-driven restructuring in both European and North American avian communities. Because community composition has changed much faster during the winter than during the breeding season, it is important to increase our knowledge about climate-driven impacts during the less-studied non-breeding season.

The majority of Common Cranes (Grus grus) breeding in northern Europe are short- to medium-distance migrants that overwinter in southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. However, some individuals migrate longer distances to as far as Ethiopia. Using data from 18 satellite-tracked juvenile Common Cranes, we assessed (1) the length and landscape composition of the migratory routes used and (2) the behaviour of neighbouring Finnish and Estonian (500 km apart in the north-south direction) sub-populations. Our results show that Common Cranes mainly use the East European flyway to reach the wintering grounds in Ethiopia, yet some individual cranes may alternatively use the Baltic-Hungarian migration route. Neither duration nor the number of stopovers used influenced the flight distances of the cranes. Further, 7–19 days of refuelling enabled the cranes to cover long flight distances, from 2,420 to 5,110 km in 6–15 days, without the need for settling down at potential stopovers on the route.

To estimate the one-year prevalence of primary headaches, most importantly migraine and tension type headache, but also other primary headaches, in Estonia. A population-based random sample of 2162 subjects in Tartu City and Tartu County were interviewed by telephone or face to face using a previously validated questionnaire. Of the 2162 contacted participants, 1215 (56%) fully completed the study. Of these, 502 (41.3%) reported headache during the previous year. The prevalences adjusted by weighting by age, gender, education, marital status and habitat were the following: All headaches 41.0%, all migraine 17.7%, all tension-type headache 18.0%, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias 0.4%, other primary headaches 2.5%, and chronic headaches 2.7%. The 1-year prevalences of primary headache disorders in Estonia are comparable to the previous findings in other European countries.