Chest
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Some patients with autoimmune characteristics and idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, particularly usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), do not fit neatly into the category of connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), or recently proposed yet to be validated criteria for interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF). Outcomes of these patients are unknown. ⋯ No clinically significant differences in pulmonary function to distinguish between patients with AI-ILD, IPAF, CTD-ILD, and Lone-IPF were observed after 1 year. Longer periods of follow-up are needed to understand the outcomes of these patients. It is not yet clear whether AI-ILD is a distinct phenotype or a variant of the newly proposed entity IPAF.
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Guidelines recommend lung cancer screening (LCS), and it is currently being adopted nationwide. The American College of Chest Physicians advises inclusion of specific programmatic components to ensure high-quality screening. However, little is known about how LCS has been implemented in practice. We sought to evaluate the experience of early-adopting programs, characterize barriers faced, and identify strategies to achieve successful implementation. ⋯ Lung cancer screening implementation is a complex undertaking requiring coordination at many levels. The insight gained from evaluation of these early-adopting programs may inform subsequent design and implementation of LCS programs.
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Previous studies have identified survival in systemic sclerosis (SSc)-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (SSc-PAH) as being worse than in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). We investigated differences between these conditions by comparing demographic, hemodynamic, and radiological characteristics and outcomes in a large cohort of incident patients. ⋯ The reasons for poorer outcomes in SSc-PAH are likely to be multifactorial, including but not limited to older age and reduced gas transfer.
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A woman in her 50s with no significant medical history presented with low-grade fever and cough of 3 days' duration, which was productive of blood-streaked sputum. She was an active smoker, with a 30 pack-year history of smoking. She denied chest pain, chronic cough, exertional dyspnea, or constitutional symptoms.
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The p53 signaling pathway may be important for the pathogenesis of emphysematous changes in the lungs of smokers. Polymorphism of p53 at codon 72 is known to affect apoptotic effector proteins, and the polymorphism of mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)309 is known to increase MDM2 expression. The aim of this study was to assess polymorphisms of the p53 and MDM2 genes in smokers and confirm the role of SNPs in these genes in the pathogenesis of pulmonary emphysema. ⋯ Our data demonstrated that p53 and MDM2 gene polymorphisms are associated with apoptotic signaling and smoking-related emphysematous changes in lungs from smokers.