Chest
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Obstructive sleep apnea is increasingly recognized as a comorbidity in many medical illnesses. This has resulted in an increasing need for sleep testing, which is not entirely met by the currently available sleep laboratory facilities. ⋯ However, coding and billing for home studies is not as straightforward as it is for in-laboratory studies. This article reviews the process of coding and billing for sleep studies done in an unattended setting.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Nicotine treatment improves Toll-like receptor 2 and Toll-like receptor 9 responsiveness in active pulmonary sarcoidosis.
New evidence links nicotine to the regulation of T cell-mediated inflammation via a 7 nicotinic cholinergic receptor activation, and chronic nicotine exposure (smoking) reduces the incidence of granulomatous diseases. We sought to determine whether nicotine treatment was well tolerated while effectively normalizing immune responses in patients with active pulmonary sarcoidosis. ⋯ Nicotine treatment in active pulmonary sarcoidosis was well tolerated and restored peripheral immune responsiveness to TLR2 and TLR9 agonists and expansion of FoxP3 1 Tregs, including a specific “preactivated” (CD25 2 ) phenotype. The immune phenotype of patients with symptomatic sarcoidosis treated with nicotine closely resembled that of asymptomatic patients, supporting the notion that nicotine treatment may be beneficial in this patient population.
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Six-minute walk distance (6MWD) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels at baseline and after initiation of treatment have been associated with survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Our objective was to determine the individual and additive ability of pretreatment and posttreatment 6MWD and BNP to discriminate 2-year survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. ⋯ 6MWD and BNP values at baseline or week 12 identifi ed a population with an elevated risk of death at 2 years. A repeat assessment of 6MWD or BNP after 12 weeks of ambrisentan therapy did not provide additional prognostic information beyond that obtained from baseline values.
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Pancreatic stone protein/regenerating protein (PSP/reg) serum levels are supposed to be increased in bacterial inflammation. PSP/reg levels also might be useful, therefore, as a predictor of bacterial infection in COPD. ⋯ Serum PSP/reg level might represent a promising new biomarker to identify bacterial etiology of COPD exacerbation.
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Omalizumab has been shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization or ED visits in patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma compared with placebo. This longitudinal study observed the conditions under which omalizumab is prescribed in real-life settings and assessed whether its use as an add-on therapy alongside standard treatments decreases the risk of severe asthmatic exacerbations. ⋯ Add-on omalizumab is associated with a significantly decreased risk of hospitalization or ED visits in patients with uncontrolled severe asthma in real-life practice.