Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2018
Clinical characteristics and medication patterns in patients with COPD prior to initiation of triple therapy with ICS/LAMA/LABA: A retrospective study.
This study assessed patient-level characteristics and patterns of medication use in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) before initiation of multiple inhaler triple therapy (MITT; long-acting muscarinic antagonist/long-acting β2-agonist/inhaled corticosteroid [ICS/LAMA/LABA] combination). ⋯ Overall, it appears that in this patient population, ICS/LAMA/LABA as triple therapy is being initiated after use of a bronchodilator and/or after an exacerbation event, in accordance with accepted treatment recommendations.
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2018
Evolution of diagnostic UIP computed tomography patterns in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Disease spectrum and implications for survival.
Whether current diagnostic computed tomography (CT) patterns in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) represent distinct clinical phenotypes or simply temporal evolution of the same underlying radiologic process is unknown. We studied IPF patients presenting with 'possible' or 'inconsistent' usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) CT patterns and characterized the frequency and timing of evolution to 'consistent' UIP and its effect on survival. ⋯ A portion of IPF patients with initial 'possible' or 'inconsistent' UIP CT pattern will go on to develop 'consistent' UIP CT pattern over months to years. Despite this, there appeared to be similar risk and cause of death in those with or without pattern evolution, suggesting similar morbidity across the radiologic spectrum in IPF.