Lung
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Primary care providers' views on using lung age as an aid to smoking cessation counseling for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Smoking cessation is the primary goal for managing patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who smoke. However, previous studies have demonstrated poor cessation rates. The "lung age" concept (an estimate of the age at which the FEV(1) would be considered normal) was developed to present spirometry data in an understandable format and to serve as a tool to encourage smokers to quit. Primary care physicians' (PCPs) views of using lung age to help COPD patients to quit smoking were assessed. ⋯ This study suggests that lung age was well received by the majority of PCPs and appears feasible to use with COPD patients who smoke. However, further investigation in needed to explore COPD patients' perspectives of obtaining their lung age to help motivate them to quit in randomized clinical trials.
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Administration of systemic thrombolysis in pulmonary embolism (PE) has been limited to severe forms due to the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). There is growing evidence from small studies that low-dose systemic thrombolysis has equal efficacy to standard dose, while eliminating the risk of ICH. Little data exists on the combined use of low-dose systemic thrombolysis and new oral anticoagulants (NOAC). We evaluated the clinical and echocardiographic outcome of patients treated with low or "safe dose" thrombolysis (SDT) and NOAC at intermediate term. ⋯ With combination of SDT and NOAC, treatment of massive and submassive PE becomes identical and is transformed from an "anticoagulation first" to a "thrombolysis first" approach, thereby making treatment streamlined, simple, safe and effective, accessible and inexpensive.
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Observational Study
Clinical outcomes in patients with acute eosinophilic pneumonia not treated with corticosteroids.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the course of clinical stability in patients with acute eosinophilic pneumonia (AEP) who did not receive corticosteroid treatment. ⋯ AEP-associated symptoms and radiographic abnormalities were resolved completely within 2 weeks after diagnosis even when corticosteroid treatment was not initiated. However, these findings might be limited to relatively mild cases of AEP.