Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Mar 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialClinical outcomes of expiratory muscle training in severe COPD patients.
The most common symptoms in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are breathlessness and exercise limitation. Although both general and inspiratory muscle training have shown clinical benefits, the effects of specific expiratory muscle training remain controversial. ⋯ Our results confirm that a short outpatient programme of expiratory training can improve symptoms and quality of life in severe COPD patients. These effects could be partially explained by changes in expiratory muscle strength.
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Respiratory medicine · Mar 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialEffects of replacing oxitropium with tiotropium on pulmonary function in patients with COPD: a randomized study.
Inhaled bronchodilators are first line drugs in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Tiotropium bromide is a recently introduced long-acting anticholinergic agent able to reduce dyspnoea and COPD exacerbations and to improve pulmonary function and quality of life. We designed a study to compare the short-term efficacy of tiotropium bromide with that of oxitropium bromide in improving pulmonary function in patients with COPD. ⋯ The replacement of oxitropium with tiotropium significantly increases pulmonary function in patients with COPD. The improvement involves also small airways that have not been investigated thus far.
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Respiratory medicine · Mar 2007
Comparative StudyClinical characteristics and outcomes of empyema thoracis in 117 patients: a comparative analysis of tuberculous vs. non-tuberculous aetiologies.
Empyema thoracis remains a major problem in developing countries. Clinical outcomes in tuberculous empyema are generally believed to be worse than in non-tuberculous aetiologies because of the presence of concomitant fibrocavitary parenchymal disease, frequent bronchopleural fistulae and poor general condition of patients. We performed a prospective study over a 2-year period with the objective of comparing the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with tuberculous vs. non-tuberculous empyema. ⋯ Tuberculous empyema remains a common cause of thoracic empyema in India though it ranked second amongst all causes of empyema after community acquired lung infections in this study. Tuberculous empyema is associated with longer duration of symptoms, greater duration of pleural drainage and more residual pleural fibrosis.
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Respiratory medicine · Mar 2007
Bronchoalveolar lavage in fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias.
The purpose of this study was to assess the role of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in differentiating usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) from non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) and in predicting the prognosis in fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP). A retrospective review of 122 patients (age 58+/-8 years, 70 male) with UIP (n=87) and NSIP (n=35) was carried out. Prior to surgical lung biopsy, all of them underwent BAL and high-resolution-computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest. ⋯ Pathologic diagnosis of NSIP was the only independent factor predicting a longer survival of our patients (median follow-up 21 months) (hazard ratio (HR) 0.035, P=0.005). When NSIP was not included in the survival analysis, higher BAL lymphocyte count was the only independent predictor of a longer survival (HR 0.909, P=0.029). BAL is an useful non-invasive tool in fibrotic IIP, not only for excluding a variety of specific non-IIP diseases but also for narrowing the differential diagnosis and predicting the prognosis in the absence of the histopathologic diagnosis.
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Smoking is associated with an accelerated loss of lung function and inhalation accelerates the decline further. Exhaled CO reflects the exposure of smoke to the lungs. ⋯ Inhalation and type of cigarette affects exhaled CO levels. CO measures have no predictive value regarding neither present lung function nor decline in lung function with time in a population survey setting.