Chest
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"My Mom Is a Fighter": A Qualitative Analysis of the Use of Combat Metaphors in ICU Clinician Notes.
A metaphor conceptualizes one, typically abstract, experience in terms of another, more concrete, experience with the goal of making it easier to understand. Although combat metaphors have been well described in some health contexts, they have not been well characterized in the setting of critical illness. ⋯ We provide a novel conceptual framework around the use of combat metaphors in the ICU. Further studies are needed to understand intentionality behind their use and how they impact clinician behaviors and patient and caregiver emotional responses.
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Exercise hemodynamics are recommended for early detection of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and have been suggested to be predictive of future development of PAH in high-risk populations such as BMPR2 mutation carriers. However, the optimal exercise hemodynamic screening parameter remains to be determined. Recent data suggest that pulmonary vascular distensibility (α) may serve as a useful parameter for early detection of PAH. ⋯ The results of this study indicate that before development of PAH in BMPR2 mutation carriers, α is reduced markedly and may serve as a useful parameter in the setting of early disease detection. Given the low event rate, caution is warranted in interpreting these results, highlighting the need for validation studies.
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The eighth edition of lung cancer nodal staging assignment includes the location of lymph node metastasis, but does not include single-nodal and multiple-nodal descriptors. ⋯ Patients with NSCLC with one metastatic lymph node, whether in N1 or N2 stations, showed better survival than those with more than one lymph node involved. Patients with NSCLC with a single-skip N2 lymph node metastasis showed survival similar to patients with multiple N1 lymph nodes, and the number of lymph nodes involved in N1 resections up to four or more was sequentially prognostic.
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Sarcoidosis staging primarily has relied on the Scadding chest radiographic system, although chest CT imaging is finding increased clinical use. ⋯ In this study, CT scan features explained additional variability in lung function beyond Scadding stage, with some CT scan features obviating the associations between lung function and Scadding stage. Whether CT scan features, phenotypes, or endotypes could be useful for treating patients with sarcoidosis needs more study.
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Case Reports
A 54-Year-Old Man With High-Grade Fever, Cough, Dyspnea, and Vesiculobullous Skin Eruptions.
A 54-year-old Egyptian man with a 5-day history of worsening cough, high-grade fever, and progressive dyspnea was referred to our hospital. A 3-day course of ceftriaxone provided in an outpatient setting showed no clinical improvement. Medical history was unremarkable, except for bilateral pulmonary embolism diagnosed 3 years earlier. ⋯ Five weeks before the actual presentation, he had traveled to Egypt. One of his children showed symptoms of a respiratory infection approximately 2 weeks before that. His only regular medication was rivaroxaban.