Chest
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Neutralizing COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19: A Blinded Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.
Convalescent plasma has been one of the most common treatments for COVID-19, but most clinical trial data to date have not supported its efficacy. ⋯ gov.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Neurovascular Dysregulation and Acute Exercise Intolerance in ME/CFS: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Pyridostigmine.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is characterized by intractable fatigue, postexertional malaise, and orthostatic intolerance, but its pathophysiology is poorly understood. Pharmacologic cholinergic stimulation was used to test the hypothesis that neurovascular dysregulation underlies exercise intolerance in ME/CFS. ⋯ gov.
-
Excessive inflammation is pathogenic in the pneumonitis associated with severe COVID-19. Neutrophils are among the most abundantly present leukocytes in the inflammatory infiltrates and may form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) under the local influence of cytokines. NETs constitute a defense mechanism against bacteria, but have also been shown to mediate tissue damage in a number of diseases. ⋯ Abundant neutrophils undergoing NETosis are found in the lungs of patients with fatal COVID-19, but no correlation was found with viral loads. The strong association between NETs and IL-8 points to this chemokine as a potentially causative factor. The function of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in the immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 may be interfered with by the presence of NETs.
-
Case Reports
A 72-Year-Old Woman With Dyspnea, Multiple Pulmonary Nodules, and Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy.
A 72-year-old woman presented to our institution with gradually worsening shortness of breath and bilateral lower extremity edema of 3 weeks' duration. She had associated complaints of cough and intermittent hemoptysis. Her medical history was significant for hypertension and hypothyroidism. ⋯ The procedure demonstrated both acute and chronic inflammation, with one specimen showing few atypical cells on cytopathology and no growth on bacterial, fungal, and mycobacterial cultures. She was treated empirically with oral steroids for presumed sarcoidosis. However, this did not result in clinical benefit, and because of progressive symptoms, she presented to our institution.