Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2020
ReviewPharmacological management of COVID-19 patients with ARDS (CARDS): A narrative review.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly infectious. It has been highlighted that if not expertly and individually managed with consideration of the vasocentric features, a COVID-19 patient with an acute respiratory distress syndrome (CARDS) may eventually develop multiorgan failure. Unfortunately, there is still no definite drug for CARDS that is capable of reducing either short-term or long-term mortality and no specific treatments for COVID-19 exist right now. ⋯ There is still no recommendation for the therapeutic use of any specific agent to treat CARDS because no drugs are validated to have significant efficacy in clinical treatment of COVID-19 patients in large-scale trials. However, there exist a number of drugs that may be useful at least in some patients. The real challenge now is to link the right patient to the right treatment.
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2020
Comparative StudyDisease course and prognosis of pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis compared with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (iPPFE) is a rare interstitial lung disease characterized by unique radiological and pathological findings. However, pathological evaluations are available only in a limited number of patients. Therefore, several clinical diagnostic criteria have been proposed. Nevertheless, the applicability of these criteria has not yet been validated. Moreover, the clinical course of iPPFE and its prognosis have not yet been completely elucidated. ⋯ The present study demonstrated efficiency of clinical diagnosis and also revealed clinically important characteristics of iPPFE that should be considered for management of iPPFE.
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An ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread around the world. It is debatable whether asymptomatic COVID-19 virus carriers are contagious. We report here a case of the asymptomatic patient and present clinical characteristics of 455 contacts, which aims to study the infectivity of asymptomatic carriers. ⋯ In summary, all the 455 contacts were excluded from SARS-CoV-2 infection and we conclude that the infectivity of some asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers might be weak.
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2020
Multicenter StudyChest X-ray features of SARS-CoV-2 in the emergency department: a multicenter experience from northern Italian hospitals.
To evaluate the imaging features of routine admission chest X-ray in patients referred for novel Coronavirus 2019 infection. ⋯ The most common X-ray pattern is multifocal and peripheral, associated with interstitial and alveolar opacities. Chest X-ray, compared to CT, can be considered a reliable diagnostic tool, especially in the Emergency setting.
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Respiratory medicine · Aug 2020
Observational StudyD-dimer in patients infected with COVID-19 and suspected pulmonary embolism.
To analyze the risk factors for pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients infected with COVID-19. ⋯ In conclusion, patients infected with COVID-19 requiring OTI with higher levels of D-dimer have an increased risk of developing PE.