Chest
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Critically ill patients who develop ARDS have substantial associated morbidity and mortality. Circulating mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) released during critical illness causes endothelial dysfunction and lung injury in experimental models. This study hypothesized that elevated plasma mtDNA is associated with ARDS in critically ill patients with trauma and sepsis. ⋯ Plasma mtDNA levels were associated with incident ARDS in two critical illness populations. Given supportive preclinical data, our findings suggest a potential link between circulating mtDNA and lung injury and merit further investigation as a potentially targetable mediator of ARDS.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A randomized trial of nebulized lignocaine, lignocaine spray or their combination for topical anesthesia during diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy.
The optimal mode of delivering topical anesthesia during flexible bronchoscopy remains unknown. This article compares the efficacy and safety of nebulized lignocaine, lignocaine oropharyngeal spray, or their combination. ⋯ Ten actuations of 10% lignocaine oropharyngeal spray were superior to nebulized lignocaine or their combination for topical anesthesia during diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy.
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Pleural biopsy using either video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery or medical pleuroscopy is the current diagnostic criterion standard for pleural pathology with a high, yet imperfect, diagnostic yield. Cryobiopsy may provide greater tissue, increase depth of sampled tissue, and/or reduce crush artifact. However, its impact on diagnostic yield remains uncertain, and there are potential concerns regarding its safety too. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the same. ⋯ Based on analysis of relatively homogenous observational data, pleural cryobiopsy is safe but does not increase diagnostic yield over flexible forceps biopsy. Adequately powered multicenter randomized trials are needed for further investigation.
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Multiple studies have identified COPD subtypes by using visual or quantitative evaluation of CT images. However, there has been no systematic assessment of a combined visual and quantitative CT imaging classification. We integrated visually defined patterns of emphysema with quantitative imaging features and spirometry data to produce a set of 10 nonoverlapping CT imaging subtypes, and we assessed differences between subtypes in demographic features, physiological characteristics, longitudinal disease progression, and mortality. ⋯ The combination of visual and quantitative CT imaging features reflects different underlying pathological processes in the heterogeneous COPD syndrome and provides a useful approach to reclassify types of COPD.