Chest
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Staging and classification in lung cancer are important for both patient management and clinical research. Results of survival after resection in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are analyzed in order to validate recent refinements of the staging system. ⋯ The TNM staging system accurately reflects the prognosis in primary NSCLC, but some stage definitions can be discussed. Despite the fact that the staging system is built on clinical data, the present analysis, which includes postsurgical data, confirms the similar survival of patients with T2N0M0 and T1N1M0. These results also stress the use of two separate substages, especially because these patients are offered surgery when possible.
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Review Comparative Study
Inhaled corticosteroids for asthma therapy: patient compliance, devices, and inhalation technique.
Patient compliance, inhalation devices, and inhalation techniques influence the effectiveness of inhaled medications. ⋯ This review demonstrates that multiple factors may come between a prescription of an inhaled corticosteroid and the arrival of that medicine at its target organ, the lung.
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Knowing that mortality is high in patients who require mechanical ventilation patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), we hypothesized that the severity of acute lung injury could be used along with nonpulmonary factors to identify patients with the highest risk of death. We formulated a prediction model to quantitate the risk of hospital mortality in this population of patients. ⋯ Based on clinical parameters measured over the first 24 h of mechanical ventilation, this model accurately identified critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients with CAP for whom prolonged intensive care may not be of benefit.