Respiration; international review of thoracic diseases
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Rare diffuse infiltrative lung diseases are a challenge for clinicians, radiologists, and pathologists for at least three reasons: (a) their low incidence and prevalence hamper the acquisition of expertise and frequently the diagnosis is delayed; (b) therapeutic actions are mainly empirical and based on steroid use, and (c) pathogenetic events are difficult to explain and only recently new therapeutic measures taking advantage of innovative genetic and/or immunopathogenetic studies have been suggested. In this review rare diffuse lung disorders are briefly discussed (pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, inherited lipidoses, acute eosinophilic pneumonia, amyloidosis, pulmonary ossification, pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis). The list is obviously not exhaustive and arbitrarily chosen. The intent is, however, to emphasize that in this difficult field multidisciplinary expertise and the knowledge of the most recent pathogenetic mechanisms have the main role in diagnosis and treatment.
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Effects of isolated cycle ergometer training on patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programs are beneficial to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lower-extremity training is considered a fundamental component of PR. Nevertheless, the isolated effects of each PR component are not well established. ⋯ In COPD patients, the results of isolated low-to-moderate intensity cycle ergometer training are not comparable to effects of multimodality and high-intensity training programs.
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In Tunisia, there are no normal values of pulmonary function for healthy Tunisian children. ⋯ Healthy Tunisian children showed similar spirometric reference values compared to European, white US and Asian children. Thus, these standards of lung function could also be used in Tunisia.