Chest
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Fungal lung infections are widely encountered and present both diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. The increasing prevalence of fungal infections is correlated with increasing numbers of immunocompromised patients, enhanced awareness of these infections, and improved methodologies for diagnosis. Fortunately, additional antifungal agents are available to combat these important infections. This review covers the clinical approach to fungal lung infections encountered in pulmonary and critical care practice.
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Review Historical Article
Did We Finally Slay the Evil Dragon of Cigarette Smoking in the Late 20th Century?: Unfortunately, the Answer Is No-the Dragon Is Still Alive and Well in the 21st Century and Living in the Third World. Shame on Us!
If cigarettes were introduced as a new consumer product today, it is unlikely they would receive government regulatory approval. Cigarettes have proven biologic toxicities (carcinogenesis, atherogenesis, teratogenesis) and well-established causal links to human disease. Things were very different in 1913 when the R. ⋯ There is some good news. The 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, supported strongly by the American College of Chest Physicians, is the first global public health treaty of the new millennium. Many developed societies have begun planning to rid their countries of cigarettes in what is called the Endgame Strategy, and now is the time for the international medical community to help change tobacco policy to a worldwide endgame approach to rid all humanity of smoking-related diseases.
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Robotic-assisted lobectomy is being offered increasingly to patients. However, little is known about its safety, complication profile, or effectiveness. ⋯ In this early experience with robotic surgery, robotic-assisted lobectomy was associated with a higher rate of intraoperative injury and bleeding than was thoracoscopic lobectomy, at a significantly higher cost.
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Comparative Study
Assessment of the safety and efficiency of using an age-adjusted d-dimer threshold to exclude suspected pulmonary embolism.
D-dimer levels increase with age, and research has suggested that using an age-adjusted D-dimer threshold may improve diagnostic efficiency without compromising safety. The objective of this study was to assess the safety of using an age-adjusted D-dimer threshold in the workup of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE). ⋯ Use of an age-adjusted D-dimer threshold reduces imaging among patients aged > 50 years with an RGS ≤ 10. Although the adoption of an age-adjusted D-dimer threshold is probably safe, the CIs surrounding the additional 1.5% of PEs missed necessitate prospective study before this practice can be adopted into routine clinical care.
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The past decade has seen an enormous advancement in the therapy for lung cancer, predominantly seen in adenocarcinoma, ranging from the introduction of histology-based drugs to the discovery of targetable mutations. These events have led to a personalized therapeutic approach with the delivery of drugs that target specific oncogenic pathways active in a given tumor with the intent of acquiring the best response rate. The discovery of sensitizing mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene as the basis for clinical response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors led to a systematic search for other molecular targets in lung cancer. ⋯ This technology allows for the detection of most molecular alteration with a single test, thus saving tissue for future discoveries. The use of NGS is expected to increase and gain importance in clinical and experimental approaches, since it can be used as a diagnostic tool as well as for new discoveries. The technique may also help us elucidate the interplay of several genes and their alteration in the mechanism of drug response and resistance.