Rare Respiratory Diseases: A Personal and a Public Health Problem: 3rd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

About four years ago, we proposed to the Journal of Clinical Medicine editorial board to launch a Special Issue on rare respiratory diseases (RRDs) to promote research in this important field of medicine. Even in these times of the pandemic, researchers were very active, and the Special Issue was quite successful, with 26 articles submitted, of which 16 were published (61% acceptance rate) and 44.663 visits to the journal's web page (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jcm/special_issues/Rare_Respiratory_Diseases).

Given these results and in response to the requests of numerous researchers who published their research in the first Special Issue, we decided to launch a second Special Issue on RRDs. The second Special Issue was also well received, with 16 articles submitted and 9 published (56% acceptance rate) and 24.000 accesses to the journal's web page (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jcm/special_issues/Rare_Respiratory_Diseases2).

In view of the excellent results achieved from the first two Special Issues, both in the number of published articles and the number of visits to the journal's web page, and the growing interest in this type of pathology, we have decided to launch a third Special Issue on RRDs (Rare Respiratory Diseases: A Personal and a Public Health Problem: 3rd Edition).

A rare disease is defined as any disease that affects a small percentage of the population. Rare diseases are, in general, complex, chronic, and debilitating diseases that, in many cases, threaten patients' lives. It has been estimated that the number of people worldwide living with a rare disease is about 300 million; indeed, it is a public health problem. Due to the low prevalence and severity of many of these diseases, whose symptoms often initially manifest in childhood, combined efforts are needed to improve knowledge of the pathophysiology of these diseases, which will lead to the development of new, more effective treatments.

In this third Special Issue, we intend to demonstrate a special interest in several RRDs, such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Articles on PAH, IPF, and ALS are particularly welcome and will receive special attention.

Finally, given the great social burden of this type of disease, we extend the spectrum of articles of interest to the social aspects of RRDs. We hope that this new Special Issue will be of interest to you and will help promote research on RRDs. We look forward to receiving your basic, clinical, and social research papers.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Dasí
Guest Editor

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• rare diseases
• rare respiratory diseases
• alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• primary ciliary dyskinesia
• cystic fibrosis
• idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• lymphangioleiomyomatosis
• interstitial lung diseases
• pulmonary arterial hypertension

• Rare Respiratory Diseases: A Personal and a Public Health Problem 2.0 in Journal of Clinical Medicine (9 articles)