Annals of the American Thoracic Society
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Comparative Study
Intensive Care Unit Admission and Survival among Older Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Heart Failure, or Myocardial Infarction.
Admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) may be beneficial to patients with pneumonia with uncertain ICU needs; however, evidence regarding the association between ICU admission and mortality for other common conditions is largely unknown. ⋯ ICU admission did not confer a survival benefit for patients with uncertain ICU needs hospitalized with COPD exacerbation, HF exacerbation, or AMI. These findings suggest that the ICU may be overused for some patients with these conditions. Identifying patients most likely to benefit from ICU admission may improve health care efficiency while reducing costs.
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The arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) is an important parameter in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. To limit invasive procedures or for more continuous monitoring of PaCO2, clinicians often rely on venous blood gases, capnography, or transcutaneous monitoring. Each of these has advantages and limitations. ⋯ Transcutaneous Pco2 measurement has become practical and reliable. It is promising for judging steady state values for PaCO2 unless there is overt vasoconstriction of the skin. Moreover, it can be useful in conditions where capnography fails (high-frequency ventilation) or where arterial blood gas analysis is burdensome (clinic or home management of mechanical ventilation).
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Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major clinical problem with high morbidity and mortality. Diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) is considered the histological hallmark for the acute phase of ARDS. DAD is characterized by an acute phase with edema, hyaline membranes, and inflammation, followed by an organizing phase with alveolar septal fibrosis and type II pneumocyte hyperplasia. ⋯ A predictive model for DAD based on noninvasive measurements has been developed in an autopsy cohort but must be validated. It would be ideal to identify biomarkers or imaging techniques that help determine which patients with ARDS have DAD. We conclude that additional studies are needed to determine the effect of DAD on outcomes in ARDS, and whether noninvasive techniques to identify DAD should be developed with the goal of determining whether this population responds differently to specific therapies targeting the molecular mechanisms of ARDS.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Psychiatric Symptoms in Survivors of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Effects of Age, Sex, and Immune Modulation.
Psychiatric morbidity after acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is common, and our current ability to predict psychiatric symptoms based on patient- and illness-specific factors is limited. ⋯ 6 months after ARDS, age, sex, illness severity, steroids, and GM-CSF treatment were associated with psychiatric symptom scores. These associations should be confirmed in a larger population. Clinical Trial registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00201409).
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A Phase II Clinical Trial of an Aromatase Inhibitor for Postmenopausal Women with Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a progressive cystic lung disease that predominantly affects women and can worsen with pregnancy, estrogen treatment, and the menstrual cycle, suggesting an important role for estrogen in disease pathogenesis. ⋯ Letrozole treatment appears to be safe and well tolerated in postmenopausal patients with LAM, including those taking sirolimus. Enrollment in this trial was compromised by the publication of an effective treatment (sirolimus) in the same month as the study opened, resulting in limited power to detect treatment effects. Post hoc matched pairs exploration studies provide tentative support for additional studies of letrozole in LAM. Considering the reduced rate of lung function decline in postmenopausal patients, future studies will likely require enhanced study designs, such as selective enrollment of those with prognostic biomarkers predictive of decline. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01353209).