Respiration; international review of thoracic diseases
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A case with advanced diffuse pulmonary ossification is described. The patient underwent surgical treatment of a malignant nodular melanoma of the right shoulder followed by postoperative cytostatic therapy for 6 months. He developed renal insufficiency and pulmonary infiltrates 3 years after the operation. ⋯ Morphometric measurements of ossified nodules revealed increased ossification in fibrotic lung areas. Immunohistology for differentiating immunoglobulins and lymphocytic subpopulations was insuspicious. The findings suggest that diffuse intraalveolar ossification is probably not related to pulmonary congestion.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Antitussive effect of dextromethorphan and dextromethorphan-salbutamol combination in healthy volunteers with artificially induced cough.
The antitussive effects of dextromethorphan (30 mg) + salbutamol (2 mg), dextromethorphan (30 mg) alone and placebo on artificial cough induced by citric acid were compared in 19 healthy non-smoking volunteers in a double-blind crossover study. The method using inhaled citric acid with increasing concentrations to establish the cough threshold level showed an acceptable reproducibility and proved to be suitable for comparison of antitussive drugs. The cough threshold level was assessed before as well as 90 and 180 min after each medication. ⋯ However, significant rises were shown following dextromethorphan (p less than 0.001) and the dextromethorphan-salbutamol combination (p less than 0.001). Between the treatments significant differences were shown in favour of the dextromethorphan-salbutamol combination. The results indicate that salbutamol has antitussive action enhancing the effect of plain dextromethorphan.
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Case Reports
Bronchoalveolar lavage during third-trimester pregnancy in patients with status asthmaticus: a case report.
Bronchial asthma is not uncommon among pregnant women. Especially, uncontrollable status asthmaticus may endanger both the lives of mother and fetus. We present a case of a late-phase pregnant woman in whom life-threatening status asthmaticus was relieved by repeated bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) under controlled ventilation, followed by successful spontaneous vaginal delivery. This case may indicate that BAL should be considered as an option in status asthmaticus complicating pregnancy before terminating the pregnancy to save the lives of mother and fetus.
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The type and distribution of pulmonary vascular lesions in 23 cases of primary pulmonary hypertension were reviewed. 15 cases were classified as plexogenic arteriopathy. The remaining cases displayed thromboembolic lesions. ⋯ In the plexogenic group, mixed concentric and eccentric intimal fibrosis coexisted. Therefore, in the present study, we propose an objective descriptive approach to the diagnosis of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease, to correlate morphology and function.