Chest
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Transthoracic echocardiography is the standard of care in anatomic and functional cardiovascular assessment; however, focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) performed with portable ultrasound equipment is increasingly being used as an adjunct to comprehensive history and physical examination. FoCUS assessments, unlike formal echocardiography, are intended to assist physicians in answering explicit clinical questions with a narrow differential diagnosis in real time. Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has repeatedly shown the value that FoCUS adds to clinical evaluation. ⋯ Although less robust, there is also evidence showing improvement in clinical outcomes. Based on this evidence, clinicians, training programs, and clinical societies have embraced FoCUS as a tool to complement bedside patient evaluation. Herein, we review the evidence for FoCUS in clinical practice, specifically evaluating the diagnostic accuracy, the impact on clinical decision-making, and the effect on clinical outcomes.
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Challenges remain for establishing a specific diagnosis in cases of interstitial lung disease (ILD). Bronchoscopic lung cryobiopsy (BLC) has impacted the diagnostic impression and confidence of multidisciplinary discussions (MDDs) in the evaluation of ILD. Reports indicate that a genomic classifier (GC) can distinguish usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) from non-UIP. ⋯ GC increased diagnostic confidence when added to BLC for patients with a probable UIP pattern, and in appropriate clinical settings can be used without BLC. In contrast, BLC had the greatest impact regarding a specific diagnosis when the likelihood of UIP was considered low following clinical-radiographic review.
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Nasal (airway) epithelial methylation profiles have been associated with asthma, but the effects of such profiles on expression of distant cis-genes are largely unknown. ⋯ Previous epigenome-wide association studies of asthma have estimated the effects of DNA methylation markers on expression of nearby genes in airway epithelium. Our findings suggest that distant epigenetic regulation of gene expression in airway epithelium plays a role in atopic asthma.