Chest
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Inhaled corticosteroid dose response using domiciliary exhaled nitric oxide in persistent asthma: the FENOtype trial.
International guidelines advocate a standard approach to asthma management for all, despite its heterogeneity. "Personalized" treatment of inflammatory asthma phenotypes confers superior benefits. We wished to evaluate dose response to inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in patients with asthma with an elevated fractional exhaled nitric oxide (Feno) phenotype using domiciliary measurements. ⋯ There is a significant dose response of diurnal Feno to ICS in patients with asthma with an elevated Feno phenotype, which translates into well-controlled asthma. Further interventional studies are warranted using domiciliary Feno in this specific phenotype.
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Over the past 15 years, patients with a myriad of pulmonary conditions have been diagnosed and treated with new technologies developed for the pulmonary community. Advanced diagnostic and therapeutic procedures once performed in an operating theater under general anesthesia are now routinely performed in a bronchoscopy suite under moderate sedation with clinically meaningful improvements in outcome. With the miniaturization of scopes and instruments, improvements in optics, and creative engineers, a host of new devices has become available for clinical testing and use. ⋯ While more research is needed, it seems reasonable to provide an overview of pulmonary procedures that are in various stages of development, testing, and practice at this time. Five areas are covered: navigational bronchoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound, endoscopic lung volume reduction, bronchial thermoplasty, and pleural procedure. Appropriate training for clinicians who wish to provide these services will become an area of intense scrutiny as new skills will need to be acquired to ensure patient safety and a good clinical result.
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Skin metastasis from internal organ malignancy has a 5% to about 10% incidence, and zosteriform metastasis is much rarer. We present the case of a 51-year-old male smoker initially given a diagnosis of right lower lung adenocarcinoma T2N3M0 who developed new-onset zosteriform skin metastasis over the right-side T3∼T5 dermatomes documented by skin biopsy specimen. The probable mechanism for this band-distributed skin metastasis is the retrograde flow of lymph after obstruction by cancer cells. Such a phenomenon may be demonstrated by lymphoscintigraphy.
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Propensity scores have been proposed as a method of equating groups at baseline, which is a problem, especially in studies that do not use randomization. This article discusses some difficulties with the technique that may jeopardize the findings if users (and readers) are not aware of these problems.
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Lymphangiogenesis responds to tissue injury as a key component of normal wound healing. The development of fibrosis in the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias may result from abnormal wound healing in response to injury. We hypothesize that increased lymphatic vessel (LV) length, a marker of lymphangiogenesis, is associated with parenchymal components of the fibroblast reticulum (organizing collagen, fibrotic collagen, and fibroblast foci), and its extent correlates with disease severity. ⋯ Severity of disease in UIP and NSIP is associated with increased LV length and is strongly associated with components of the fibroblast reticulum, namely organizing and fibrotic collagen, which supports a pathogenic role of LVs in these two diseases. Furthermore, the absence of definable differences between UIP and NSIP suggests that LVs are a unifying mechanism for the development of fibrosis in these fibrotic lung diseases.