Chest
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Case Reports
An African American Man in His Late 30s With Lung Cancer Presenting With Persistent Cough and Hemoptysis.
An African American man in his late 30s was referred to the pulmonary clinic for evaluation of a persistent cough of several weeks' duration. Cough was productive of mucopurulent sputum mixed with blood. He also noted generalized weakness and dyspnea with minimal exertion.
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Single-point measurements of maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) are frequently used to suggest muscle weakness in clinical practice. Although there is a large variability in "mean" predicted MIP depending on the chosen reference values, it remains unclear whether those discrepancies actually impact on the prevalence of weakness, that is, MIP below the lower limit of normal. ⋯ The choice of MIP reference values strongly impacts on the prevalence of weakness. Some specific equations relate better to clinical and physiologic indicators of weakness, suggesting that they might be particularly useful to screen subjects for advanced respiratory neuromuscular assessment.