Chest
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Chinese Waterpipe Smoking and the Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Studies show that the incidence of COPD has remained high in southwest China despite the 1976 National Stove Improvement Program for indoor air quality. Chinese water-pipe tobacco smoking (commonly referred to as water-pipe smoking), which is thought to be less harmful under the assumption that no charcoal is used and water filters tobacco smoke, is popular in China. We investigated whether Chinese water-pipe use and exposure are associated with the risk of COPD. ⋯ Chinese water-pipe smoking significantly increases the risk of COPD, including the risk to women who are exposed to the water-pipe smoke.
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Cardiac death is the leading cause of mortality associated with sarcoidosis in Japan. However, the involvement of sarcoidosis infiltration often remains undetected. Recently, late gadolinium enhancement with cardiovascular MRI (LGE-CMR) imaging has been introduced for the detection of myocardial infiltrative disease, as it enables the detection of even minor myocardial damage. We investigated the incidence and prognostic value of LGE-CMR in patients with extracardiac sarcoidosis without cardiac manifestations. ⋯ LGE-CMR detected cardiac involvement in 13% of patients with sarcoidosis without cardiac manifestation, but both patients with and without LGE had relatively low event rates.
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Past disasters have highlighted the need to prepare for subsets of critically ill, medically fragile patients. These special patient populations require focused disaster planning that will address their medical needs throughout the event to prevent clinical deterioration. The suggestions in this article are important for all who are involved in large-scale disasters or pandemics with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including frontline clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. ⋯ Chronically ill, technologically dependent, and complex critically ill patients present a unique challenge to preparing and implementing mass critical care. There are, however, unique opportunities to engage patients, primary physicians, advocacy groups, and professional organizations to lessen the impact of disaster on these special populations.
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Pandemics and disasters can result in large numbers of critically ill or injured patients who may overwhelm available resources despite implementing surge-response strategies. If this occurs, critical care triage, which includes both prioritizing patients for care and rationing scarce resources, will be required. The suggestions in this chapter are important for all who are involved in large-scale pandemics or disasters with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials. ⋯ Ethical and efficient critical care triage is a complex process that requires significant planning and preparation. At present, the prognostic tools required to produce an effective decision support system (triage protocol) as well as the infrastructure, processes, legal protections, and training are largely lacking in most jurisdictions. Therefore, critical care triage should be a last resort after mass critical care surge strategies.