American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2015
Inflammation, Metabolic Dysregulation and Pulmonary Function Among Obese Asthmatic Urban Adolescents.
Insulin resistance and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) are associated with pulmonary morbidity, including asthma, but the underlying mechanisms are not well elucidated. ⋯ Th1 polarization and monocyte activation among obese subjects with asthma correlates with metabolic abnormalities. Association of monocyte activation with pulmonary function is mediated by body mass index, whereas that of Th1 polarization is mediated by insulin resistance.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2015
Serum Endostatin is a Genetically Determined Predictor of Survival in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a medically incurable disease resulting in death from right ventricular (RV) failure. Both pulmonary vascular and RV remodeling are linked to dynamic changes in the microvasculature. Therefore, we hypothesized that circulating angiostatic factors could be linked to outcomes and represent novel biomarkers of disease severity in PAH. ⋯ Our data link increased expression of ES to disease severity in PAH and demonstrate a significant relationship with adverse outcomes. Circulating ES levels can be genetically influenced, implicating ES as a genetically determined modifier of disease severity impacting on survival. These observations support serum ES as a potential biomarker in PAH with the capacity to predict poor outcomes. More importantly, this study implicates Col18a1/ES as a potential new therapeutic target in PAH.
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Treatment is needed for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) because untreated OSA can result in serious health problems. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the most common treatment used for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). (see ATS Patient Series http://patients.thoracic.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2014/03/obstructive-sleep-apnea.pdf) For those who cannot use CPAP or want to try another option, there are other therapies that can work for people with OSA.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jan 2015
The Myth of the Workforce Crisis: Why the United States Does Not Need More Intensivist Physicians.
Intensivist physician staffing is associated with lower mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU), yet many ICUs are not staffed by trained intensivists. This gap has led to a number of proposals intended to increase the intensivist supply in the United States. In this perspective we argue that such efforts would be both ineffective and ill-advised. ⋯ In addition, efforts to train more intensivists require us to prioritize intensive care over other specialties that are also in short supply, without clear justification for why intensivists are more important. Rather than continuing an unwarranted push to increase the intensivist supply, we suggest alternative workforce policies that emphasize novel interprofessional care models (to improve ICU quality in the absence of intensivists) combined with limitations on the future growth of ICU beds (to reduce demand through implicit rationing of care). These policies offer opportunities to reduce the mismatch between critical care supply and demand without an unnecessary expansion of the intensivist supply.