BMC pulmonary medicine
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BMC pulmonary medicine · May 2015
Observational StudyDual phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor therapy for refractory pulmonary arterial hypertension: a pilot study.
Recent vasodilating drugs have improved prognosis of Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Some reports describe the merits of combination therapies for PAH, and this study evaluated the efficacy and safety of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5i) combination therapy, using sildenafil and tadalafil, for multi-drug-resistant PAH. ⋯ The findings support dual PDE5i therapy as a new treatment option for refractory PAH.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · May 2015
Relationship between daily physical activity and aerobic fitness in adults with cystic fibrosis.
The best clinical practice to investigate aerobic fitness includes measurements obtained during cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), however it remains an underutilised clinical measure in cystic fibrosis (CF). To investigate this further, different methods of quantifying exercise capacity in CF are required. The possibility that measuring physical activity (PA) by a portable accelerometer could be used to assess the CF aerobic state and could be added among the CPET surrogates has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between PA and exercise fitness both at submaximal and maximal levels in clinically stable adults with CF. ⋯ In adult CF patients daily PA positively correlated with aerobic capacity. PA measurements are a valuable tool in the assessment of exercise performance in an adult CF population and could be used for interventional exercise trials to optimize exercise performance and health status. PA levels and parameters obtained at submaximal exercise are similar in CF and in healthy controls.