Respiration; international review of thoracic diseases
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Comparative Study
Induced sputum in systemic sclerosis interstitial lung disease: comparison to healthy controls and bronchoalveolar lavage.
Induced sputum (IS) is a noninvasive tool, which can be used to collect cellular and soluble materials from lung airways. ⋯ The IS method may allow a noninvasive assessment of cell composition in airway fluid and may contribute to the better understanding of upper/medium airway inflammation in SSc. Future studies are needed to verify whether IS can replace invasive procedures for the detection and monitoring of lung inflammation in SSc.
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Dyspnea is prevalent and has a broad differential diagnosis. Difficulty in determining the correct etiology can delay proper treatment. Non-invasively obtained acoustic signals may offer benefit in identifying patients with dyspnea due to obstructive airway disease (OAD). ⋯ This modality was useful in identifying patients whose dyspnea was due to OAD. The ability to objectively and non-invasively measure these differences may prove clinically useful in distinguishing the operant physiology in patients presenting with acute dyspnea.
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Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is able to detect variations in regional lung electrical impedance associated with changes in both air and blood content and potentially capable of assessing regional ventilation-perfusion relationships. However, regional lung perfusion is difficult to determine because the impedance changes synchronous with the heart rate are of very small amplitude. ⋯ Our results indicate that redistribution of regional lung perfusion can be assessed by EIT during one-lung ventilation. The performance of EIT in detecting changes in lung perfusion in even smaller lung regions remains to be established.