Expert review of respiratory medicine
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Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug around the world. It is most often consumed through smoking, placing the respiratory system in direct contact with the toxic constituents of the drug, which are similar to those of tobacco cigarettes. However, accurate study of the adverse effects of marijuana is difficult to perform, owing to marijuana's illegal status, variation in smoking technique, often short duration of use compared with tobacco and the frequently confounding factor of concomitant consumption of both marijuana and tobacco. Despite this, there is evidence to suggest that marijuana can impair lung function, damage large airway mucosa and possibly contribute to bullous disease, while its carcinogenic potential is controversial.
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Expert Rev Respir Med · Feb 2011
ReviewRole of CCR2 and IL-8 in acute lung injury: a new mechanism and therapeutic target.
Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are severe inflammatory lung diseases associated with very high mortality, and are the most common and earliest organ dysfunctions in the development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. The NIH estimates that more than 4.5 million people suffer from ALI/ARDS per year. Although the American-European Consensus Conference definition has been widely used for approximately 40 years, it still has some limitations that may impact on the conduct of clinical research and management of patients with ALI/ARDS. This article will focus on the role of CC chemokine receptor 2 and IL-8 in the pathogenesis and resolution in ALI/ARDS.
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Expert Rev Respir Med · Feb 2011
Pediatric acute respiratory failure: areas of debate in the pediatric critical care setting.
Pediatric intensive care units across the world care for large numbers of mechanically ventilated infants and children on a daily basis, yet management of these patients is far from standardized. This lack of standardization may be a necessity in certain situations given variation between underlying disease processes, pathophysiology, response to therapy and available resources. However, there are many situations in which similar patients are managed differently across pediatric intensive care units simply because there are a shortage of available data to guide the management of these critically ill infants and children. Thus, a large fraction of pediatric critical care involves a combination of institutional preference, individual experience, opinion and extrapolation of adult data.
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Expert Rev Respir Med · Dec 2010
ReviewThe value of the lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury model in respiratory medicine.
Acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) is a syndrome characterized by pulmonary edema and acute inflammation. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a major component in Gram-negative bacteria, has been used to induce ALI/ARDS. ⋯ The goal of this article is to summarize and evaluate the results of experimental findings in LPS-induced ALI/ARDS, and the possible mechanisms and treatments elucidated. Advantages and disadvantages of such models in pulmonary research and new directions for future investigations are also discussed.
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The respiratory care academic community has not yet adopted a standardized system for classifying and describing modes of ventilation. As a result, there is enough confusion that patient care, clinician education and even ventilator sales are all put at risk. This article summarizes a ventilator mode taxonomy that has been extensively published over the last 15 years. ⋯ To distinguish between similar modes and brand names, we would need to include all components. This taxonomy uses the equation of motion for the respiratory system as the underlying theoretical framework. All terms relevant to describing modes of mechanical ventilation are defined in an extensive appendix.