Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · May 1998
Persistent air-leak in spontaneous pneumothorax--clinical course and outcome.
Persistent air-leak in patients with spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) is not uncommon and may present a management dilemma in those who are unfit or unwilling for surgery. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has been advocated in the management of patients with broncho-pleural fistulae (air-leak persisting beyond 7 days): however the optimum time for surgical intervention remains unclear. We reviewed the records of 130 episodes of SP in 115 patients over a 2-year period to determine clinical course and outcome, particularly with respect to duration of air-leak. ⋯ Five patients underwent surgery while nine patients were discharged with residual pneumothoraces. There were no major complications or mortality. Based on our findings, we advocate surgery for patients with air-leak persisting beyond 14 days, while favouring a conservative approach before this time, as the majority of air-leaks (especially in patients with primary pneumothorax) would resolve by 14 days.
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Respiratory medicine · May 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialTreadmill exercise duration and dyspnea recovery time in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: effects of oxygen breathing and repeated testing.
Oxygen supplementation is known to improve exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although some COPD patients use oxygen after exercise to relieve dyspnea, the effect of oxygen during recovery from exercise is not clearly understood. Exercise duration and dyspnea recovery time were studied in 18 patients with stable COPD. ⋯ Post-exercise oxygen supplementation had no effect on dyspnea recovery time in these COPD patients. Repeated bouts of exercise increased dyspnea recovery time and tended to decrease exercise duration. These findings suggest that, despite recovery of symptoms, physiological recovery from prior exercise is incomplete.
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Respiratory medicine · May 1998
Comparative StudyBronchoalveolar lavage cell findings in three types of eosinophilic pneumonia: acute, chronic and drug-induced eosinophilic pneumonia.
There are clinically different types of eosinophilic pneumonia (EP) but no study to date has compared pulmonary inflammatory cells between different types of EP, such as acute eosinophilic pneumonia (AEP), chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP) and drug-induced eosinophilic pneumonia (drug-EP). The present study compared bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cell findings to elucidate whether the profiles of the pulmonary inflammatory cells were different among the three types of EP. Clinical records of 28 patients with EP, consisting of eight AEP patients, 10 CEP patients and 10 drug-EP patients, were examined retrospectively. ⋯ There was no significant difference in the mean number of nuclear segmentations in eosinophils in BALF among the three types of EP. The BALF cell findings in patients with EP showed some characteristics in accordance with type of EP. It is suggested that pulmonary neutrophils and lymphocytes, rather than eosinophils, may be related to the pathogenesis of the different types of EP.
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Respiratory medicine · May 1998
Comparative StudyComparative analysis of Light's criteria and other biochemical parameters for distinguishing transudates from exudates.
To compare the accuracy of Light's criteria for categorizing a pleural effusion as an exudate with several alternative criteria. ⋯ Light's criteria are just as useful as the association of pleural cholesterol and LDH to detect exudates. In the present study, no parameter, including pleural cholesterol, was superior to Light's criteria.