Thorax
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Review Meta Analysis
Test performance of endobronchial ultrasound and transbronchial needle aspiration biopsy for mediastinal staging in patients with lung cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) with transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is becoming widely used for mediastinal lymph node staging in patients with known or suspected lung cancer. While a substantial number of case series have evaluated test performance of this investigation, the small sample sizes limited the ability to accurately evaluate the precision of EBUS-TBNA as a staging modality. A systematic review was performed of published studies evaluating EBUS-TBNA for mediastinal lymph node staging to ascertain the pooled sensitivity and specificity of this investigation. ⋯ EBUS-TBNA has excellent overall test performance and specificity for mediastinal lymph node staging in patients with lung cancer. The results compare favourably with published results for computed tomography and positron emission tomography.
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Multicenter Study
Ion mobility spectrometry for the detection of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath of patients with lung cancer: results of a pilot study.
Analysis of exhaled breath, especially of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), is of increasing interest in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Compared with other methods of breath analysis, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) offers a tenfold higher detection rate of VOCs. By coupling the ion mobility spectrometer with a multicapillary column as a pre-separation unit, IMS offers the advantage of an immediate twofold separation of VOCs with visualisation in a three-dimensional chromatogram. The total analysis time is about 500 s compared with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) of about 1 h. It therefore seemed reasonable to test IMS in breath analysis. ⋯ Breath analysis by IMS can detect a discriminating combination of VOCs in patients with lung cancer. By pattern recognition without the need for chemical analysis of the underlying VOCs, IMS has the potential to facilitate lung cancer diagnosis.
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Hyperbilirubinaemia is a common complication of sepsis. Elevated bilirubin may induce inflammation and apoptosis. It was hypothesised that increased serum bilirubin on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission contributes to sepsis-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ⋯ In sepsis, a higher serum bilirubin level on ICU admission is associated with subsequent ARDS development and mortality.
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There is a paucity of evidence about whether exposure to antenatal smoking impacts on offspring's lung function in early adulthood. This study aimed to examine whether (1) in utero exposure to maternal smoking is related to poorer respiratory functioning in early adulthood; (2) the impact of prenatal smoking is independent of postnatal maternal smoking; and (3) the link between prenatal smoking and a young adult's lung function is explained by the child's birth weight, smoking or history of asthma. ⋯ Adverse effects of antenatal smoking on development of airway growth may persist into early adulthood. Gender differences noted in this longitudinal cohort need to be explored further.