Chest
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic prescription in patients with COVID-19: a multicentre observational cohort study.
Despite the low rate of bacterial coinfection, antibiotics are very commonly prescribed in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. ⋯ PCT-guided antibiotic prescription reduces antibiotic prescription rates in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, without major safety concerns.
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Right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension (PH) contributes to reduced exercise capacity, morbidity, and mortality. Exercise can unmask right ventricular dysfunction not apparent at rest, with negative implications for prognosis. ⋯ This review describes the current understanding of clinical applications of exercise testing in the risk assessment of patients with suspected or established PH.
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It has been observed widely that, on average, Black individuals in the United States have lower FVC than White individuals, which is thought to reflect a combination of genetic, environmental, and socioeconomic factors that are difficult to disentangle. Debate therefore persists even after the American Thoracic Society's 2023 guidelines recommending race-neutral pulmonary function test (PFT) result interpretation strategies. Advocates of race-based PFT results interpretation argue that it allows for more precise measurement and will minimize disease misclassification. ⋯ Furthermore, the use of race-based algorithms in medicine in general is increasingly being questioned for its risk of perpetuating structural health care disparities. Given these concerns, we believe it is time to adopt a race-neutral approach, but note that more research is urgently needed to understand how race-neutral approaches impact PFT results interpretation, clinical decision-making, and patient outcomes. In this brief case-based discussion, we offer a few examples of how a race-neutral PFT results interpretation strategy will impact individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups at different scenarios and stages of life.
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Prediction models for mediastinal metastasis and its detection by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) have not been developed using a prospective cohort of potentially operable patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ⋯ PLUS-M and PLUS-E can be used effectively for decision-making for invasive mediastinal staging in NSCLC.