Articles: mortality.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2024
ReviewOverview of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease and Its Treatment.
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common pulmonary complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), causing significant morbidity and mortality. Optimal treatment for RA-ILD is not yet well defined. Reliable prognostic indicators are largely byproducts of prior ILD progression, including low or decreasing forced vital capacity and extensive or worsening fibrosis on imaging. ⋯ Recent randomized controlled trials have shown that antifibrotic medications, such as nintedanib and likely pirfenidone, slow forced vital capacity decline in RA-ILD. Consideration can be given to antifibrotic initiation in patients progressing despite immunosuppression, particularly in patients with a UIP pattern. Future research directions include developing tools to predict which patients will remain stable from patients who will progress, discriminating patients who will respond to treatment from nonresponders, and developing algorithms for starting immunosuppression, antifibrotics, or both as first-line therapies.
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National action plans enumerate many interventions as potential strategies to reduce the burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, knowledge of the benefits achievable by specific approaches is needed to inform policy making, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) with substantial AMR burden and low health-care system capacity. In a modelling analysis, we estimated that improving infection prevention and control programmes in LMIC health-care settings could prevent at least 337 000 (95% CI 250 200-465 200) AMR-associated deaths annually. ⋯ These estimates translate to prevention of 7·8% (5·6-11·0) of all AMR-associated mortality in LMICs by infection prevention and control, 5·7% (3·7-8·0) by water, sanitation, and hygiene, and 4·2% (3·4-5·1) by vaccination interventions. Despite the continuing need for research and innovation to overcome limitations of existing approaches, our findings indicate that reducing global AMR burden by 10% by the year 2030 is achievable with existing interventions. Our results should guide investments in public health interventions with the greatest potential to reduce AMR burden.
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Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a multifaceted, multisystem autoimmune disorder with diverse clinical expressions. While prevalence reports vary widely, pulmonary involvement accounts for significant morbidity and mortality in SLE. ⋯ We discuss diagnostic modalities, treatment strategies, and prognosis for each pulmonary manifestation. With diagnostics remaining a challenge and with the absence of standardized treatment guidelines, we emphasize the need for evidence-based guidelines to optimize patient care and improve outcomes in this complex disease.
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Of the 750,000 strokes in the United States every year, about 15% patients suffer from hemorrhagic stroke (HS). Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) are subtypes of hemorrhagic stroke. Despite advances in acute management patients with hemorrhagic stroke continue to suffer from high mortality and while survivors suffer from multi-domain impairments in the physical, cognitive and mental health domains which can last for months to years from their index stroke. ⋯ Our review indicates that evidence regarding the safety and benefit of IHT for HS patients is conflicting, with some studies reporting poorer outcomes for transferred patients compared to direct admissions via emergency rooms and others showing no effect on outcomes. IHT may, however, may prevent timely institution of clinical interventions such as blood pressure control and anticoagulant reversal. Large, prospective, and multi-center studies comparing outcomes of IHT patients to direct admissions are necessary to provide more definitive guidance to optimize IHT protocols and aid clinical decision-making.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2024
ReviewPulmonary Manifestations of Connective Tissue Diseases.
Systemic sclerosis is a multisystem connective tissue disease that is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Visceral organ involvement is common in patients with systemic sclerosis and occurs independently of skin manifestations. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an important and prevalent complication of systemic sclerosis. ⋯ The treatment of PAH associated with systemic sclerosis requires a multidisciplinary team including a PH specialist and a rheumatologist to optimize immunomodulatory and PAH-specific therapies. Several potential biomarkers have been identified and there are several promising PAH therapies on the horizon such as the novel fusion protein sotatercept. This chapter provides an overview of PH in systemic sclerosis, with a specific focus on group 1 PAH.