Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2016
Comparative Study Clinical TrialComparison of endobronchial ultrasound and high resolution computed tomography as tools for airway wall imaging in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Airway remodeling in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) results in bronchial wall thickening. Bronchial wall thickness (BWT) can be assessed in high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS). ⋯ The use of EBUS to assess BWT in asthma and COPD is feasible and it shows good compatibility with HRCT. A tendency towards lower BWT values in EBUS when compared to HRCT was observed. The finding that EBUS measurements demonstrated the differences between BWT in patients with obstructive lung diseases and controls, may suggest that EBUS is a more sensitive method to study the BWT than HRCT.
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2016
Observational StudyIdentification of five clusters of comorbidities in a longitudinal Japanese chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cohort.
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) frequently suffer from various comorbidities. Recently, cluster analysis has been proposed to examine the phenotypic heterogeneity in COPD. In order to comprehensively understand the comorbidities of COPD in Japan, we conducted multicenter, longitudinal cohort study, called the Keio COPD Comorbidity Research (K-CCR). In this cohort, comorbid diagnoses were established by both objective examination and review of clinical records, in addition to self-report. We aimed to investigate the clustering of nineteen clinically relevant comorbidities and the meaningful outcomes of the clusters over a two-year follow-up period. ⋯ Five clusters of comorbidities were identified in Japanese COPD patients. The clinical characteristics and health-related quality of life were different among these clusters during a follow-up of two years.
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2016
Comparative StudyNon-invasive screening for pulmonary hypertension in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common complication of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that is associated with poor prognosis. Noninvasive screening for PH in IPF patients is challenging and a combination of several noninvasive determinations can improve discrimination. ⋯ There are significant differences in ECG, echocardiographic, chest CT, PFT and ABG parameters between IPF patients with and without PH. However, these noninvasive tests alone or combination have limited discrimination ability for PH screening in IPF.
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2016
Observational StudyRelationships between emphysema and airways metrics at High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) and ventilatory response to exercise in mild to moderate COPD patients.
In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients, the opportunity to carry out a thoracic high-resolution CT (HRCT) scan and to perform an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) increases the possibility to identify the different clinical features of disease. The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationships between HRCT metrics (on emphysema by low attenuation areas-LAA% and airways by wall area-WA%) and CPET variables related to the dynamic response to exercise in terms of elastic balance (Δ rest-to-peak IC/TLC) and ventilation capacity for carbon dioxide output (VE/VCO2slope and VE/VCO2 intercept). ⋯ In mild to moderate COPD patients, emphysema (LAA) and airways metrics (WA) have close relationships with the different characteristics of ventilatory response to exercise. In particular, we were able to show that LAA is an independent predictor of exercise-induced Δ rest-to-peak IC/TLC and VE/VCO2 slope.
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Respiratory medicine · Jul 2016
Observational StudyTrends in hospital admissions for obstructive lung disease from 2000 to 2010 in Portugal.
The burden of hospitalisations for obstructive lung diseases (OLD) has not been sufficiently studied. We aimed to characterise the hospitalisations for OLD from 2000 to 2010 in all Portuguese public hospitals. We analysed hospital discharges with a diagnosis of OLD regarding the patients' gender, age, residence and comorbidities. ⋯ When both pneumonia and COPD were diagnosed there was an increasing trend to classify pneumonia as the principal diagnosis (64.4%-72.9%), a sign that may lead to underestimation of COPD hospitalisations. In summary, a considerable decrease in in-hospital COPD mortality was observed while hospital admissions and the length of stay did not change substantially. These results suggest that better healthcare or other factors may be counteracting the expected increase of the burden of COPD.