Chest
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A 72-year-old gentleman with metastatic pancreatic cancer was admitted to the ICU with increased oxygen demand and confusion, likely related to pulmonary metastases. In the presence of his son, the healthcare agent, and the team, the patient requested to be do-not-attempt-resuscitation and do-not-intubate (DNR/DNI) before losing decision-making capacity. ⋯ Numerous discussions over subsequent days revolved around the attempt to honor the patient's wishes in the setting of the surrogate's unwillingness or inability to make decisions in alignment with his father's wishes. This case reviews and analyzes the ethical options available to the clinical team in responding to requests for potentially inappropriate treatment at a patient's end of life, and explores the roles of relational autonomy, beneficence vs nonmaleficence, and holding the balance of clinicians' and ethicists' professional, legal, and ethical responsibilities.
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Lower respiratory tract infections are common in patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after an acute brain injury and may have deleterious consequences. ⋯ Current evidence from randomised clinical trials does not provide definitive evidence regarding the effect of prophylactic antibiotics on mortality in patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in the ICU.
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Serum anti-glycopeptidolipid (GPL) core immunoglobuin A (IgA) antibody test has been proposed as a diagnostic tool for Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary diseases. Cross-reactivity with other non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), including M. abscessus, indicates that it may have a role as a broader screening test for NTM pulmonary disease (NTM-PD). NTM-PD is believed to be underdiagnosed in patients with bronchiectasis. ⋯ The anti-GPL-core IgA antibody demonstrated excellent efficacy in screening for NTM-PD in a large bronchiectasis cohort.
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Treatment for lung cancer can improve prognosis, but 5-year survival remains low at 26%. An examination of treatment using data with higher population coverage, and among a broader number of treatment modalities and individual characteristics, would provide greater insight into differences in lung cancer treatment. ⋯ Chemotherapy and radiation were the most common types of first-course treatment reported. Receipt of at least one of the four treatments examined was lower among several groups, including certain racial and ethnic groups and those residing in counties with lower economic status. Future studies might further identify and intervene upon factors underlying differences.
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Evaluating expiratory airway function in infants is challenging, as the gold standard, the raised-volume rapid thoraco-abdominal compression technique is technically difficult and has a high failure rate. ⋯ The passive flow-volume curve offers reliable and reproducible data with high correlation to the forced flow-volume curve. Therefore, the passive flow-volume curve can serve as an alternative tool in evaluating expiratory airway function in infants.