The American journal of medicine
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Review
Health economics of use fluoroquinolones to treat patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Respiratory diseases account for approximately 10% of all hospital admissions in the United States. Pneumonia constitutes 35% of these cases, with an average length of stay (LOS) of 5.1 days. ⋯ As such, medical decisions, including empiric antibiotic choice, potentially exert an impact on hospital LOS and associated costs. In this review, we focus on the empiric antibiotic choices and associated costs of treatment for hospitalized patients with CAP, focusing on the use of fluoroquinolone therapy as recommended by the CAP guidelines.
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Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a diffuse fibrotic lung disease of unknown etiology with no effective treatment. Emerging data support a role for chronic microaspiration (ie, subclinical aspiration of small droplets) in the pathogenesis and natural history of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. However, the precise relationship between chronic microaspiration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis remains unknown. ⋯ This review aims to describe the relationship between chronic microaspiration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by laying out the clinical and biologic rationale for this relationship and exploring the scientific evidence available. The gaps in our current understanding of the diagnosis of chronic microaspiration and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the ongoing uncertainties in management and treatment will be highlighted. Defining the role of chronic microaspiration in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is essential as it has potential clinical, pathobiological, and treatment implications for this deadly disease.