American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Mar 2018
Association between Household Air Pollution Exposure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Outcomes in 13 Low- and Middle-Income Country Settings.
Forty percent of households worldwide burn biomass fuels for energy, which may be the most important contributor to household air pollution. ⋯ Household air pollution exposure was associated with a higher prevalence of COPD, particularly among women, and it is likely a leading population-attributable risk factor for COPD in resource-poor settings.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Mar 2018
Practice GuidelinePreschool Multiple-Breath Washout Testing. An Official American Thoracic Society Technical Statement.
Obstructive airway disease is nonuniformly distributed throughout the bronchial tree, although the extent to which this occurs can vary among conditions. The multiple-breath washout (MBW) test offers important insights into pediatric lung disease, not available through spirometry or resistance measurements. The European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society inert gas washout consensus statement led to the emergence of validated commercial equipment for the age group 6 years and above; specific recommendations for preschool children were beyond the scope of the document. Subsequently, the focus has shifted to MBW applications within preschool subjects (aged 2-6 yr), where a "window of opportunity" exists for early diagnosis of obstructive lung disease and intervention. ⋯ Consensus recommendations are outlined to direct interested groups of manufacturers, researchers, and clinicians in preschool device design, test performance, and data analysis for the MBW technique.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Mar 2018
Reliability and minimal clinically important differences of forced vital capacity: Results from the Scleroderma Lung Studies (SLS-I and SLS-II).
To assess the reliability and the minimal clinically important differences (MCID) for FVC% predicted in the Scleroderma Lung Study I and II. ⋯ FVC% has acceptable test-retest reliability, and we have provided the MCID estimates for FVC% in SSc-ILD based changes at 12 months from baseline in two clinical trials. Clinical trial registration available at www.clinicaltrials.gov, IDs NCT00004563 and NCT00883129.