Chest
-
Observational Study
Temporal trends and variation in bronchoscopy use for acute respiratory failure in the US.
National data on bronchoscopy for the evaluation of acute respiratory failure are lacking, and the limited available data suggest wide variation in use. ⋯ Bronchoscopy use among hospitalizations treated with IMV has increased over time. The large variation in use of bronchoscopy across hospitals suggests potentially unwarranted practice variation and need for further studies to clarify which patients benefit from bronchoscopy.
-
A 46-year-old previously healthy woman presented with dyspnea, fatigue, and diarrhea. She had been experiencing these symptoms for > 1 year, but they had worsened in the few weeks prior to presentation. She had become progressively dyspneic on exertion and at rest and had increased the number of pillows she was sleeping on at night. ⋯ She denied fever, weight loss, cough, hemoptysis, chest pain, or new edema. She had a pertinent medical history of gastritis, a nonspecific murmur since childhood, current tobacco use with a five pack-year history, and a family history of non-first-degree relatives having lung, breast, and colon cancer. She had not received medical care since moving from Brazil to the United States 4 years earlier.