The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Risk assessment in pulmonary arterial hypertension and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
Current pulmonary hypertension treatment guidelines recommend use of a risk stratification model encompassing a range of parameters, allowing patients to be categorised as low, intermediate or high risk. Three abbreviated versions of this risk stratification model were previously evaluated in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the French, Swedish and COMPERA registries. Our objective was to investigate the three abbreviated risk stratification methods for patients with mostly prevalent PAH and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), in patients from the PATENT-1/2 and CHEST-1/2 studies of riociguat. ⋯ This analysis confirms and extends the results of the registry analyses, supporting the value of goal-oriented treatment in PAH. Further assessment of these methods in patients with CTEPH is warranted.
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Multicenter Study
A point-of-care neutrophil elastase activity assay identifies bronchiectasis severity, airway infection and risk of exacerbation.
Neutrophil elastase activity in sputum can identify patients at high risk of airway infection and exacerbations in bronchiectasis. Application of this biomarker in clinical practice is limited, because no point-of-care test is available. We tested whether a novel semi-quantitative lateral flow device (neutrophil elastase airway test stick - NEATstik®) can stratify bronchiectasis patients according to severity, airway infection and exacerbation risk. ⋯ A novel lateral flow device provides assessment of neutrophil elastase activity from sputum in minutes and identifies patients at increasing risk of airway infection and future exacerbations.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Video-assisted thoracic lobectomy versus stereotactic body radiotherapy for stage I nonsmall cell lung cancer in elderly patients: a propensity matched comparative analysis.
Comparative studies of the overall survival (OS) in elderly patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after surgery or stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) have been limited by mixed extents of resection and different surgical approaches.792 patients aged ≥65 years with clinical stage I NSCLC underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy or SBRT between 2010 and 2015. The propensity score-matched primary analysis included data from the full cohort; the secondary analysis included data from a subgroup of patients with data on pulmonary function. Median OS for unmatched patients was 77 months for patients undergoing VATS lobectomy and 38 months for SBRT. ⋯ The survival advantage with VATS lobectomy persisted in the secondary analysis after adjusting for non-matched variables (p=0.034). We suggest that elderly patients with stage I NSCLC undergoing VATS lobectomy have a better rate of OS than patients undergoing SBRT, irrespective of matching. This could be clinically important in decision-making for elderly patients who can tolerate surgery.