TY - JOUR T1 - ERS International Congress 2020: highlights from the Paediatric Assembly JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00893-2020 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 00893-2020 AU - Cristina Ardura-Garcia AU - Sara Cuevas-OcaƱa AU - Nadine Freitag AU - Asterios Kampouras AU - John A. King AU - Panayiotis Kouis AU - Sara M. Mensink-Bout AU - Abigail L. Whitehouse AU - Emma Williams AU - Theodore Dassios AU - Liesbeth Duijts AU - Refika H Ersu AU - Erol A. Gaillard AU - Alex R. Horsley AU - Marijke Proesmans AU - Robbert Rottier AU - Dirk Schramm AU - Alexander Moeller AU - Marielle W. Pijnenburg Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/7/1/00893-2020.abstract N2 - In this review, the Paediatric Assembly of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) presents a summary of the highlights and most relevant findings in the field of paediatric respiratory medicine presented at the virtual ERS International Congress 2020. Early Career Members of the ERS and Chairs of the different Groups comprising the Paediatric Assembly discuss a selection of the presented research. These cover a wide range of research areas, including respiratory physiology and sleep, asthma and allergy, cystic fibrosis, respiratory infection and immunology, neonatology and intensive care, epidemiology, bronchology and lung and airway development. Specifically, we describe the long-term effect in lung function of premature birth, mode of delivery and chronic respiratory conditions such as cystic fibrosis. In paediatric asthma, we present risk factors, phenotypes and their progression with age, and the challenges in diagnosis. We confirm the value of the lung clearance index to detect early lung changes in cystic fibrosis. For bronchiectasis treatment, we highlight the importance of identifying treatable traits. The use of biomarkers and genotypes to identify infants at risk of long-term respiratory morbidity is also discussed. We present the long-term impact on respiratory health of early life and fetal exposures to maternal obesity and intrauterine hypoxia, mechanical ventilation hyperoxia, aeroallergens, air pollution, vitamin A deficient intake and bronchitis. Moreover, we report on the use of metabolomics and genetic analysis to understand the effect of these exposures on lung growth and alveolar development. Finally, we stress the need to establish multidisciplinary teams to treat complex airway pathologies.Highlights from the Paediatrics Assembly at the #ERSCongress 2020 https://bit.ly/3ptcnFr ER -