Background: IL-6 is strongly implicated in the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). IL-13 is the well-documented central mediator in allergic asthma. IL-6 is attributed to the proinflammatory activities in COPD as well as asthma. In COPD patients exacerbation is increased by serum IL-6. The association of IL-13 as ...

BACKGROUND: Acute exacerbation of usual interstitial pneumonia is one of the most life-threatening complications after resection of lung cancer. It is important to detect patients at high risk for acute exacerbation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of postoperative acute exacerbation and the importance of the ...

Silicone, commonly used in cosmetic procedures owing to its presumed inertness, can yield serious sequelae including acute embolization and pneumonitis. Chronic pulmonary sequelae in response to silicone injection have not been previously described. We report a case of chronic progressive granulomatous pneumonitis in response to subcutaneous silicone injections in a ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) occurs at the right ventricular (RV) insertion point (RVIP) in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) and has been shown to correlate with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) derived RV indices. However, the prognostic role of RVIP-LGE and other CMR-derived parameters of RV function are not ...

SUMMARY AT A GLANCE: We found a higher prevalence of airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) in patients with sarcoidosis using direct (histamine) challenge than indirect (hypertonic saline) challenge, and AHR was inversely associated with baseline % predicted FEV(1) . This suggests that AHR in sarcoidosis reflects the consequences of airway remodelling following ...

SUMMARY AT A GLANCE: The expression of cholesterol 25-hydroxylase was up-regulated in the lungs of COPD patients. There was excessive production of 25-hydroxycholesterol in the airways of COPD patients and 25-hydroxycholesterol concentrations in the airways were associated with reduced lung function, elevated neutrophil counts and high IL-8 levels in sputum. ...

Background: One in every three patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the lower limbs may have silent pulmonary embolism (PE), but its clinical relevance has not been thoroughly studied. Methods: We used the RIETE Registry data to study patients with proximal DVT and no PE symptoms, but with a systematic ...

Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a leading cause of death in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Sensitivities and specificities of the current pulmonary function tests (PFTs) for the detection of ILD in SSc are poor. Objective: To determine whether diffusion capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO) partitioned into membrane ...

Objective. To determine the magnitude of immunoglobulin E (IgE) variability in a cohort of patients with severe asthma considered for omalizumab therapy. Methods. Retrospective chart review identified 65 patients with two or more IgE determinations out of the 124 patients referred to the Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute for treatment with ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary involvement is a known manifestation in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). However, previous studies have been based on small samples and the reported prevalence and associations with typical clinical features vary. The purpose of this study was to compare pulmonary function (PF) in patients with AS and ...

INTRODUCTION: Hemodynamic parameters such as the global end-diastolic volume index (GEDVI) and extravascular lung water index (EVLWI), derived by transpulmonary thermodilution, have gained increasing interest for guiding fluid therapy in critically ill patients. The proposed normal values (680-800ml/m(2) for GEDVI and 3-7ml/kg for EVLWI) are based on measurements in healthy ...

OBJECTIVE: To report our experience using rituximab as therapy for refractory antisynthetase syndrome (ASS)-associated interstitial lung disease. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 7 ASS patients with refractory interstitial lung disease, which had previously failed to respond to prednisone and/or other cytotoxic drugs. All 7 patients received rituximab ...

PURPOSE: The management of congenital peripheral vascular malformations (VMs) can present a difficult therapeutic challenge. Endovascular transcatheter embolization of peripheral VMs is widely accepted as a first therapeutic option for many VMs. However, data describing the use of Onyx are limited in children with peripheral VMs. Our aim is to ...

We investigated whether physiological data can be used for predicting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. Home measurements from 57 patients were analysed, during which 10 exacerbations occurred in nine patients. A total of 273 different features were evaluated for their discrimination abilities between periods with and without exacerbations. The ...

BACKGROUND: Patients with various chronic respiratory diseases have a higher incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-related symptoms, but the mechanisms of the relationship between GERD symptoms and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remain unclear. The aim of the present study was to explore the association of GERD symptoms with impaired ...

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning leads to demyelination of cerebral white matter (CWM) fibers, causing chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms. To clarify whether fractional anisotropy (FA) from diffusion tensor imaging in the centrum semiovale can depict demyelination in the CWM during the subacute phase after CO inhalation, we examined correlations between FA in ...

PURPOSE: We aimed to compare the inspiratory and expiratory quantitative computed tomography (CT) densitometric data of healthy volunteers, individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk, and COPD patients to aid in the early diagnosis of COPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of the study patients, 14 were healthy volunteers (Group I), ...

OBJECTIVES: To address if baseline endothelin-1 (ET-1) plasma levels might predict clinical worsening (CW) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPAH) treated with bosentan. METHODS: Forty-four consecutive patients with IPAH (WHO classes II-III) were included in this study. After an initial assessment (clinical status, pulmonary hemodynamics, samples for adrenomedullin (ADM), ...

Objectives. To study the longitudinal development of pulmonary function in patients with primary SS (pSS) and its association with respiratory symptoms, pulmonary radiographic findings and clinical features of pSS.Methods. Forty-one pSS patients, previously evaluated by pulmonary function tests (PFTs), were included in the study. The patients were studied at baseline ...

AIM: To retrospectively evaluate the efficacy of embolotherapy in patients with iatrogenic traumatic uterine arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of all patients who underwent uterine arterial embolization in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2000 and December 2010 was performed. Forty-two patients were diagnosed with ...

INTRODUCTION: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease characterized by an airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. β(2)-agonists and anticholinergics represent the most effective therapeutic options. Optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP) is a novel technology, which provides noninvasive steady-state measurements of chest wall kinematics, together with the assessment of the ...

BACKGROUND: Verticalization of the frontal P vector in patients older than 45 years is virtually diagnostic of pulmonary emphysema (sensitivity, 96%; specificity, 87%). We investigated the correlation of P vector and the computed tomographic visual score of emphysema (VSE) in patients with established diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema. METHODS: ...

During hemodialysis (HD), blood that passes the dialysis device gets loaded with microbubbles (MB) of air that are returned to the patient without inducing an alarm. The aim with this study was to clarify if these signals are due to microembolies of air, clots, or artifacts, by histopathology of autopsy ...

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of pulmonary embolism (PE) has not been reported in patients hospitalized due to classical findings of decompensated heart failure (HF). OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of PE and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the Wells and Geneva scores in patients hospitalized due to HF. METHODS: Patients ...

Portopulmonary hypertension (POPH) is a not infrequent but serious complication of liver cirrhosis. Continuous intravenous epoprostenol infusion is a treatment option for this condition. Progressive splenomegaly with pancytopenia (hypersplenism) is associated with epoprostenol use in POPH. After recognizing a case of epoprostenol-induced hypersplenism that resolved upon stopping the drug, the ...

BACKGROUND: The prevalence, prognostic importance, and factors that predict the presence and degree of pulmonary hypertension (PH) diagnosed with right heart catheterization (RHC) in patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remain unclear. METHODS: This retrospective study included 409 patients (61% women) with COPD/emphysema or α-1-antitrypsin deficiency who underwent ...

Objective:  To compare the diagnostic yield of transrectal ultrasonography and transurethral seminal vesiculoscopy in patients with persistent hematospermia, and to determine the advantages and disadvantages of both modalities. Methods:  We prospectively enrolled 106 patients with persistent hematospermia of mean duration 20.5 months. All patients were evaluated by both transrectal ultrasonography and ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of ureteroscopy (URS) in pregnant women. A retrospective analysis was performed on 32 pregnant patients referred to our center between April 2005 and November 2010 with hydronephrosis requiring surgical intervention. A semirigid URS of 9.5 F was used in ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: The diagnosis of acute lung injury may be more robust if more accurate physiological markers can be identified. Extravascular lung water (EVLW) is one possible marker, and has been shown to correlate with respiratory function and mortality in patients with sepsis. Whether EVLW confers diagnostic value in a ...

Verticalization of the P-wave axis is characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We studied the correlation of P-wave axis and computerized tomographically quantified emphysema in patients with COPD/emphysema. Individual correlation of P-wave axis with different structural types of emphysema was also studied. High-resolution computerized tomographic scans of 23 patients ...

We report the case of a 23-year-old asthmatic woman who had clinical and radiological deterioration due to Mycobacterium szulgai infection and good response to anti-mycobacterial treatment without any structural abnormalities in previous lung imaging studies. M. szulgai may be considered a pathogen able to cause deterioration of respiratory health even ...

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:79-84 © 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ABSTRACT: Objectives:  Although congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma patients typically present with abnormal auscultatory findings on lung examination, respiratory sounds are not normally subjected to rigorous analysis. The aim of ...

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a specific form of chronic, progressive fibrosing interstitial pneumonia of unknown cause, and the prognosis remains poor. On the other hand, other fibrotic interstitial pneumonias such as idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (I-NSIP) and collagen vascular disease-associated interstitial pneumonia (CVD-IP) resemble IPF, but they respond ...

In burned patients, inhalation injury can result in progressive pulmonary dysfunction, infection, and death. Although bronchoscopy is the standard for diagnosis, it only assesses the proximal airway and does not provide a comprehensive analysis of pulmonary insult. Chest radiographs have not been proven helpful in diagnosis of inhalation injury. Our ...

Objectives:  Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) frequently accompanies childhood congenital heart disease (CHD) and may persist into adult life. The advent of specific PAH therapies for PAH prompted formation of a national ANZ registry in 2010 to document the incidence, demographics, presentation and outcomes for these patients. Design:  This multicentre, prospective, ...

Adult patients who underwent tetralogy of Fallot repair surgery (rTOF) confront life-threatening ailments due to right ventricular (RV) myocardial dysfunction. Pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) needs to be performed to restore the deteriorating RV function. Determination of correct timing to perform PVR in an rTOF patient remains subjective, due to the ...

Background: Lung function determined by spirometry and the severity of dyspnea correlate weakly in asthma patients. We attempted to determine the risk factors in asthma patients having persistent airway obstruction despite of having only mild subjective symptoms, and to examine the possibility of improving FEV1 by treating asthma on the ...

BACKGROUD AND AIM: Patients with acute pulmonary embolism (APE) present with highly variable symptoms and ECG abnormalities. As ST-elevation in lead aVR has recently been described to predict right ventricular dysfunction (RVD), we aimed to correlate this sign to the severity of APE. METHODS: Three-hundred ninety-six consecutive patients (in centers ...

BACKGROUND:: Neurogenic pulmonary edema (NPE) as a systemic consequence early after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) sometimes complicates perioperative and postoperative fluid management and increases the risk of a poor outcome. This is the first report to demonstrate the ability of a bedside transpulmonary thermodilution device to trace physiological patterns consistent ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the presence of pulmonary abnormalities in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related autoantibody (Ab) positivity without inflammatory arthritis (IA). METHODS: 42 subjects without IA but with elevations of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies and/or 2 or more rheumatoid factor isotypes (a profile that is 96% specific for RA), 15 ...

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare tumour usually caused by asbestos exposure. MM is difficult to diagnose in its early stages and is invariably fatal. Earlier detection of MM could potentially improve survival. Exhaled breath sampling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using a carbon polymer array (CPA) electronic nose recognises ...

Some patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis experience acute exacerbations in their respiratory status leading to substantial morbidity and mortality. Occult aspiration of gastric contents has been proposed as one possible mechanism leading to these acute exacerbations. We sought to determine if pepsin, a marker of gastric aspiration, is elevated in ...

BACKGROUND: Although sites of complex fractionated electrograms (CFAEs) and dominant frequency (DF) are known to be critical for the maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF), spatial distribution of CFAEs and DF and their impact on the outcome of AF ablation remain unclear. METHODS: We created CFAE and DF maps of the ...

Background. Invasive mold diseases (IMDs) of the lung remain a challenge for immunocompromised patients. Although timely diagnosis and treatment are crucial for the outcome of the infection, the poor sensitivity of microbiological techniques and the limited specificity of chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) often delay definitive diagnosis of these infections.Methods. To explore ...

Incidental pulmonary embolism (PE) in cancer patients is usually thought to be of mild degree. We investigated the severity of PE and evaluated the potential of raising the suspicion of PE in such patients. The computed tomography (CT) extent of PE was evaluated in 19 consecutive unsuspected and 19 randomly ...

OBJECTIVE: Many patients with symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have minimal left ventricular outflow tract gradients, and there is uncertainty whether their limitation is due to diastolic dysfunction or labile outflow tract obstruction. The purpose of this study was to characterize the clinical presentation and outcome of septal myectomy in patients with ...

Background. Propylthiouracil (PTU) therapy is associated with a variety of adverse reactions, among the most rare being interstitial pneumonia. To date, this has been reported in four Asian patients with autoimmune hyperthyroidism. Here we describe a Caucasian woman who developed a bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP)-like interstitial pneumonia after PTU ...

Object The use of unilateral dural sinus stent placement in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) has been described by multiple investigators. To date there is a paucity of information on the angiographic and hemodynamic outcome of these procedures. The object of this study was to define the clinical, angiographic, ...

Progression of lung disease is a major event in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), but regional differences in its evolution are unclear. We hypothesized that regional differences occur beginning in early childhood. We examined this issue by evaluating 132 patients followed in the Wisconsin Neonatal Screening Project between 1985 and ...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between changes in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) under PAH-targeted therapies. Despite the fact that medical therapies reduce PVR, the prognosis of patients with PAH is ...