Peter Dicpinigaitis, MDPeter Dicpinigaitis, MD, Professor of Medicine (Critical Care)
and Director of the Montefiore Cough Center, has been named Editor-in-Chief
of LUNG, a journal for pulmonary researchers and clinicians. Dr. Dicpinigaitis has served as Associate Editor
since 2008; he will begin his tenure as EIC in October, 2019.
LUNG, a Springer publication, publishes original
articles, reviews and editorials on all aspects of the healthy and diseased
lungs, of the airways, and of breathing.
Dr. Dicpinigaitis, an authority on cough challenge testing,
whose guidelines have been adopted worldwide, noted how the Editor-in-Chief
position at LUNG has come full circle. First published in 1903, the
European-based German-language journal was converted to an English language
journal in the 1970s. M. Henry Williams, the former Chief of the Division of
Pulmonary Medicine at Einstein, served as EIC in the 1980s and 1990s. The
outgoing EIC, Dennis McCool, from Brown University, has been at the helm for
the past 15 years.
“The editorship of the journal comes back to Einstein Montefiore,”
Dr. Dicpinigaitis said.
“It’s an honor for me to assume the role of Editor-in-Chief
of such a prestigious journal. My goal will be to continue the journal’s
positive trajectory as established by my predecessor, but also to incorporate an
eclectic group of new members onto the Editorial Board, so as to infuse new
energy and ideas. One particular effort will be to promote more
pulmonary-related, critical care-focused publications in the journal.”
Dr. Dicpinigaitis currently serves as Site Director of
Critical Care Medicine at the Weiler Division of Montefiore Medical Center. In
2003, he established the Montefiore Cough Center, one of the few specialty
centers in the world dedicated to the evaluation and management of patients
with chronic cough. To date, he has seen over 1800 patients referred for
evaluation from near and far. Dr. Dicpinigaitis has served as a co-author of
cough management guidelines published by the American College of Chest
Physicians (ACCP) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS). A major focus of
his clinical research has been in the performance of cough challenge studies,
which allow the measurement of cough reflex sensitivity. This methodology,
employing the tussive (cough-inducing) agent capsaicin, has been adopted in
international guidelines as the proposed standard method of cough challenge
testing. Employing this methodology, he has performed and published numerous
studies to evaluate potential antitussive drugs; to evaluate the effect of
non-pharmacological interventions such as cigarette smoking and viral
infections on cough reflex sensitivity; as well as to evaluate ethnic and
gender differences in the cough reflex. During the past decade, Dr.
Dicpinigaitis and colleagues have developed the concept of Cough
Hypersensitivity Syndrome to explain the underlying mechanisms of chronic
refractory cough.