Respirology : official journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology
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Comparative Study
Long-term effectiveness of an inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program for elderly COPD patients: comparison between young-elderly and old-elderly groups.
To evaluate the long-term effects of pulmonary rehabilitation in elderly COPD patients, we monitored patients for 1 year after they completed a 2-week inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program. We also compared the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on young-elderly (age 65-74 years) and old-elderly (age 75 years or over) COPD patients. ⋯ Pulmonary rehabilitation is an effective treatment in terms of improving dyspnoea, exercise capacity and HRQoL in elderly COPD patients, and the benefits are almost comparable for young-elderly and old-elderly patients.
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The association of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) with myeloperoxidase antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (MPO-ANCA)-associated vasculitides has not been well documented. The aim of this study was to assess the clinicopathological characteristics of PF in patients who tested positive for MPO-ANCA. ⋯ Although there was no correlation between MPO-ANCA titres and the activity of PF, this study demonstrated that the presence of positive MPO-ANCA was an unfavorable prognostic factor in patients with PF.
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In rural Australia access to doctors is limited, access to respiratory physicians even more so and these are the traditional sources of lung function testing. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of training and supporting existing rural primary healthcare providers in lung function testing as a screening and monitoring mechanism due to the shortage of healthcare professionals capable of providing such a service. ⋯ Training and supporting accessible healthcare professionals to provide lung function testing increases access in areas of need and has implications for respiratory morbidity and mortality in such settings.
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Decreased expression of prostacyclin synthase (PGIS) is observed in the lung vasculature of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and the biosynthesis of prostacyclin (PGI2) may be impaired in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Whether it is genetically determined or develops as the disease progresses is unclear. A variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism has been detected in the 5'-upstream promoter region of the PGIS gene. It has been demonstrated that the alleles vary in size from three to seven repeats of nine base pairs, and transcriptional activity increased with the number of repeats. The purpose of the present study was to elucidate the association between the VNTR polymorphisms of the PGIS gene and CTEPH in Japanese subjects. ⋯ Our results suggested that the specific VNTR polymorphism in the 5'-upstream promoter region of the PGIS gene regulated prostacyclin production, but did not seem to be associated with the development of CTEPH in this patient population.
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The aim of this study was to determine the validity of pleural fluid C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and/or pleural fluid to serum CRP ratio for differentiating tuberculous pleuritis (TBP) from malignant pleural effusion (MPE) in patients presenting with lymphocytic exudative pleural effusions. ⋯ In patients presenting with lymphocytic exudative pleural effusion, a simple marker of raised pleural fluid CRP level may be helpful in discriminating between TBP and MPE.