Chest
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Age has been implicated as a factor in the plateau of long-term survival after lung transplant. ⋯ The youngest and oldest adult recipients experienced the lowest posttransplant survival through divergent pathways that may present opportunities for intervention to improve survival after lung transplant.
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Observational Study
Cardiovascular Risk in COPD: Deciphering the Contribution of Tobacco Smoking.
The observation that COPD is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVDs) comes from comparisons between smokers with COPD and smokers without COPD. The mechanisms that explain increased risk of CVD in patients with COPD are still unclear. ⋯ Analysis of an unselected group of patients with COPD with different causes suggests that: (1) COPD by itself is not sufficient to explain increased aPWV; and (2) tobacco smoking is a risk factor for elevated aPWV in COPD.
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A 34-year-old man presented to a community hospital with sudden-onset pleuritic chest pain on a background of a 12-month indolent history of progressive exertional dyspnea. He denied cough, fevers, night sweats, or weight loss. ⋯ He had a history of gastroesophageal reflux and was a current smoker with a 20-pack year history. There were no known occupational or environmental exposures and there was no family history of any lung disease.
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Pulmonary venoocclusive disease (PVOD) is a rare form of pulmonary vascular disease with pulmonary hypertension characterized by preferential involvement of the pulmonary venous system. Hepatic venoocclusive disease (HVOD), also known as sinusoidal obstruction syndrome, is a condition that occurs in 13% to 15% of patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). ⋯ Despite their differences, PVOD and HVOD share common risk factors and associated conditions, suggesting that in the context of HSCT, the two diseases share common pathophysiological mechanisms. Optimal treatment for HSCT-related PVOD remains to be determined.
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Bronchial epithelial reticular basement membrane (RBM) thickening occurs in diseases with both eosinophilic (allergic bronchial asthma [BA]) and neutrophilic (cystic fibrosis [CF] and primary ciliary dyskinesia [PCD]) chronic airway inflammation; however, the lung function and airway remodeling relation remains unclear. The aim of this study was to test whether ventilation inhomogeneity is related to RBM thickening. ⋯ Lung function impairment in relation to RBM thickness was milder in BA than in CF and PCD. In asthma, ventilation inhomogeneity did not correlate with RBM thickness, whereas it did in CF and PCD. This outcome suggests a different structure-function relation in these diseases.