Respiration; international review of thoracic diseases
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To assess the contribution of thoracoscopy in the management of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) 101 consecutive cases treated in our department were reviewed. The patients were divided into two groups: group 1 was treated conservatively; in group 2 thoracoscopy was performed and in case of an idiopathic SP, pleurodesis was carried out with iodinated talcum. Group 1 consisted of 51 patients of whom 28 were considered to have a symptomatic SP (1A) and 23 an idiopathic SP (1B). ⋯ Complications of thoracoscopy and/or pleurodesis were not observed. We conclude that thoracoscopy enables accurate assessment of the type of pneumothorax, and can play an important role in the management of SP. Chemical pleurodesis causes a significant reduction of the recurrence rate in the treatment of idiopathic SP.
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The effect of pulmonary artery hypertension on right-ventricular performance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unclear. Decreased values of right-ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) have been reported, but most patients with stable COPD are not in cardiac failure and have normal or even increased cardiac outputs. We therefore hypothesized that RVEF may be afterload dependent, and thus a poor parameter of cardiac function, and that right-ventricular contractility may be normal even in COPD patients with pulmonary hypertension. ⋯ Right-ventricular end-diastolic volume index was significantly higher in patients with pulmonary hypertension, indicating increased preload as the major mechanism to maintain adequate stroke volume in the face of an increased afterload. Right-ventricular end-systolic pressure-volume relations, a good parameter to define right-ventricular contractility independent of systolic loading conditions, were not different between COPD patients with or without pulmonary hypertension, nor did the slopes of the pressure-volume lines in the 9 patients studied during exercise show any difference. From these data we conclude that (a) RVEF is a poor indicator of overall right-ventricular function; (b) right-ventricular contractility is well preserved in stable COPD patients; (c) the major mechanism of maintaining stroke volume in the face of increased right-ventricular afterload seems to be preload augmentation.
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This study was designed to compare spirometers used for human testing and to determine whether the results obtained by different spirometers meeting the American Thoracic Society (ATS) requirements are interchangeable. Water-sealed spirometer (Harvard), dry bellow wedge spirometer (Vitalograph) and computerized pneumotachograph (Gould), all of them satisfying the ATS recommendations were compared. ⋯ The Vitalograph values for FVC, FEV1 and FEV1% were significantly higher than those of the water-sealed spirometer (Harvard), but were closely similar to the values obtained by the Gould computerized pneumotachograph. Our results thus do not support the interchangeability of different spirometers and stress the importance of biological standardization of spirometers against each other.