BMC pulmonary medicine
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Feb 2018
Observational StudyThe cutoff point of clinical chronic obstructive pulmonary disease questionnaire for more symptomatic patients.
An adequate threshold for the Clinical Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Questionnaire (CCQ) defining more symptomatic COPD patients has not been determined. We aimed to determine the efficacy of the CCQ and the appropriate CCQ threshold for more symptomatic COPD patients. ⋯ The CCQ was correlated with other symptom indicators, lung function, and exercise capacity. A CCQ cutoff of 1.4 agreed better than CCQ cutoff of 1.0, suggested by guideline, and this cutoff value may identify more symptomatic COPD patients well.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Feb 2018
Patterns of pleural pressure amplitude and respiratory rate changes during therapeutic thoracentesis.
Although the impact of therapeutic thoracentesis on lung function and blood gases has been evaluated in several studies, some physiological aspects of pleural fluid withdrawal remain unknown. The aim of the study was to assess the changes in pleural pressure amplitude (Pplampl) during the respiratory cycle and respiratory rate (RR) in patients undergoing pleural fluid withdrawal. ⋯ In conclusion, therapeutic thoracentesis is associated with significant changes in Pplampl during the respiratory cycle. In the vast majority of patients Pplampl increased steadily during pleural fluid withdrawal. There was also an increase in RR. The significance of these changes should be elucidated in further studies.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Feb 2018
Automated chart review utilizing natural language processing algorithm for asthma predictive index.
Thus far, no algorithms have been developed to automatically extract patients who meet Asthma Predictive Index (API) criteria from the Electronic health records (EHR) yet. Our objective is to develop and validate a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm to identify patients that meet API criteria. ⋯ NLP-API was able to ascertain asthma status in children mining from EHR and has a potential to enhance asthma care and research through population management and large-scale studies when identifying children who meet API criteria.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Feb 2018
Nerve ablation after bronchial thermoplasty and sustained improvement in severe asthma.
Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a non-pharmacological intervention for severe asthma whose mechanism of action is not completely explained by a reduction of airway smooth muscle (ASM). In this study we analyzed the effect of BT on nerve fibers and inflammatory components in the bronchial mucosa at 1 year. ⋯ A reduction of nerve fibers in epithelium and in ASM occurs earlier and persists at one year after BT. We propose that nerve ablation may contribute to mediate the beneficial effects of BT in severe asthma.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Feb 2018
Observational StudyThe relationship between high-dose corticosteroid treatment and mortality in acute respiratory distress syndrome: a retrospective and observational study using a nationwide administrative database in Japan.
In the 1980s, randomized-controlled trials showed that high-dose corticosteroid treatment did not improve the mortality of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, while the diagnostic criteria for ARDS have since changed, and supportive therapies have been improved, no randomized-controlled trials have revisited this issue since 1987; thus, the effect of high-dose corticosteroid treatment may be different in this era. We evaluated the effect of high-dose corticosteroid treatment in patients with ARDS using a nationwide administrative database in Japan in a retrospective and observational study. ⋯ Our results suggest that high-dose corticosteroid treatment does not improve the prognosis of patients with ARDS, even in this era. However, this study has limitations owing to its retrospective and observational design.