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Query: UMLS:C0729233 (Thoracic)
 6,478 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a clinical-pathological entity that, if idiopathic, makes part of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias classification of the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society (ATS/ERS) of 2002 (50% of the cases, called cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, or COP). In the remaining 50% it is secondary, representing one modality of response of the lung to various forms of injury. Typical computed tomography (CT) pattern has been widely described and consists of peripheral parenchymal consolidations with air bronchogram with or without surrounding ground-glass-like opacities. The purpose of this article is to describe the less frequent imaging pattern of this disease represented by single or multiple focal lesions (nodules or masses that place diagnostic problems with malignancy), bronchocentric pattern (parenchymal consolidations with peribronchovascular distribution), atoll sign (central area of ground-glass-like density and peripheral area of consolidation), nodular lesions (poorly defined micronodular pattern), linear and band-like opacities (subpleural linear opacities that can have disposition parallel or perpendicular in relation to the pleura), perilobular pattern (thickening of the interlobular septa with reticular pattern) and progressive fibrotic pattern (irregular thickening of the interlobular septa with associated ground-glass-like appearance and consolidations).
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PMID:Organizing pneumonia: typical and atypical HRCT patterns. 1667 78

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a preventable and treatable disease in which patients experience a progressive decline in lung function. Based on clinical evidence, the management of COPD should focus on (1) earlier diagnosis; (2) risk reduction through smoking cessation, decreased exposure to inhaled irritants, and immunization against respiratory pathogens; (3) symptom reduction with pharmacotherapy and pulmonary rehabilitation; (4) decreasing complications by reducing exacerbations and improving pulmonary function; and (5) improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Smoking cessation has been shown to slow lung function decline and to reduce mortality--including deaths due to lung cancer, other respiratory disease (including COPD), and cardiovascular disease. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society (ATS/ERS) guidelines advocate interventions according to the severity of COPD and recommend initiation of maintenance long-acting bronchodilator therapy in patients with moderate disease. However, recent evidence from a post hoc analysis of randomized controlled trials of tiotropium suggests that initiation of long-acting bronchodilator therapy at earlier stages of disease may also provide improvements in lung function and HRQOL. The results of ongoing long-term studies may soon provide evidence that in addition to relieving symptoms and improving patient HRQOL, specific pharmacologic therapies may also alter the clinical course of COPD.
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PMID:Clinical course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: review of therapeutic interventions. 1699 99

The use of exercise testing as an objective assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness in clinical oncology research has increased substantially over the past decade. However, its quality has not been assessed. We did a systematic review of studies of formal exercise testing for adults with cancer. Studies were assessed according to the American Thoracic Society/American College of Chest Physicians (ATS/ACCP) recommendations for exercise testing. Overall, the reporting of exercise-testing methods and data for adults with cancer suggests that the conduct of these tests does not comply with national and international quality guidelines. We give recommendations for exercise testing in clinical oncology research. The adoption of consistent, formal standards for methods and data reporting in exercise testing is needed to ensure high-quality research in clinical oncology. Overall, we present information for clinicians and exercise-oncology researchers who assess and care for patients with cancer.
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PMID:Cardiorespiratory exercise testing in clinical oncology research: systematic review and practice recommendations. 1867 11

Listening and interpreting lung sounds by a stethoscope had been an important component of screening and diagnosing lung diseases. However this practice has always been vulnerable to poor audibility, inter-observer variations (between different physicians) and poor reproducibility. Thus computerized analysis of lung sounds for objective diagnosis of lung diseases is seen as a probable aid. In this paper we aim at automatic analysis of lung sounds for wheeze episode detection and quantification. The proposed algorithm integrates and analyses the set of parameters based on ATS (American Thoracic Society) definition of wheezes. It is very robust, computationally simple and yielded sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 86%.
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PMID:Lung sound analysis for wheeze episode detection. 1916 31

We retrospectively analyzed the severity of community-acquired pneumonia in 293 patients. Based on the Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) risk stratification guidelines (A-DROP), patients were classified as follows: mild, 74 (25%); moderate, 140 (48%); severe, 53 (18%); and extremely severe, 26 (9%). The mortality of each category was classified as follows: mild, 0 (0%); moderate, 4 (3%); severe, 8 (15%); and extremely severe, 8 (31%). Based on the Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) score used in the Infectious Disease Society of America/American Thoracic Society (IDSA/ATS) consensus guidelines, patients were classified as follows: I, 36 (12%); II, 44 (15%); III, 61 (21%); IV, 92 (31%); and V, 60 (20%). The mortality of each category was classified as follows: I-III, 0 (0%); IV, 5 (25%); or V, 15 (75%). Comparisons made between patients who died within 14 days and those who survived, showed that leukocytes and CRP values were higher among the fatality group. Moreover, Alb/BUN correlated with the PSI score (r = - 0.62). We propose Alb/BUN as a new index for prognostic factor of community-acquired pneumonia.
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PMID:[Evaluation of the severity of community-acquired pneumonia based on the JRS and IDSA/ATS guidelines]. 1919 97

Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is a category of nosocomial pneumonia defined by the 2005 American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) guidelines to include any patient who has been hospitalized in an acute care hospital for 2 or more days within the past 90 days; residents of a nursing home or long-term care facility; recipients of recent intravenous antibiotic therapy, chemotherapy, or wound care within the past 30 days; or patients who have attended a hospital or hemodialysis clinic. In creating this relatively new category the ATS/IDSA acknowledged that these patients are at increased risk for infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms and that initial inadequate antibiotic coverage leads to increased mortality. Risk factors for the development of pneumonia and the development of pneumonia caused by drug-resistant pathogens, primarily methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are not the same among the subgroups of HCAP (i.e., dialysis patients have different risks than nursing home patients). Furthermore there is significant heterogeneity of risk factors for HCAP within the subgroups due to variations in contextual factors such as local microbiology and methods of health care delivery and variations of individual risk factors such as functional status or prior antibiotic exposure. This review examines the evidence for the creation of the category of HCAP, including the risk factors for drug-resistant pneumonia in each of the subgroups that constitute HCAP. This review demonstrates that the guidelines have effectively targeted a population at greater risk for pneumonia caused by drug-resistant pathogens. However, within the broad range of HCAP infections, there is significant heterogeneity in terms of the magnitude of the risk as well as the type of risk (i.e., risk for MRSA, multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli (MDR-GNB), or both).
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PMID:What are the important risk factors for healthcare-associated pneumonia? 1919 84

The first point of a good diagnostic strategy for healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is correct classification of patients with specific criteria, as suggested by the last American Thoracic Society/ Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) guidelines. However, clinical practice and recent literature have suggested new risk factors for multidrug-resistant infection (MRI): the presence of permanent indwelling devices, prior antibiotic use in the last 3 months, chronic and advanced pulmonary diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchiectasis, etc.), history of alcoholism, and immunosuppression. The clinical presentation in HCAP patients is often unusual (mild respiratory symptoms and frequent extrapulmonary manifestations) due to different factors: advanced age, neurological disorders, and multiple chronic comorbidities. Moreover, HCAP commonly presents a worse clinical course than community-acquired pneumonia, a prolonged length of stay, and a mortality rate close to hospital-acquired pneumonia. Chest radiography and routine laboratory markers (including C-reactive protein) are always needed for clinical evaluation and severity assessment. The clinical use of new biomarkers of infection and sepsis (procalcitonin, etc.) is currently being investigated. Extensive microbiological testing to overcome the high prevalence of MRI in HCAP, including urinary antigens for Legionella and Streptococcus pneumoniae; blood cultures; Gram staining and low respiratory tract secretions (sputum, tracheobronchial aspirate, fibrobronchial aspirate, protected specimen brush, bronchoalveolar lavage); and cultures for aerobic, anaerobic, mycobacterial, and fungal pathogens are recommended, whereas the indication for serology tests for respiratory viruses and atypical pathogens is low. By contrast, the new polymerase chain reaction-based techniques for the rapid identification (2 to 4 hours) of microbial pathogens in respiratory samples (nasopharyngeal swab, bronchoalveolar lavage) seem to be the most innovative future perspective in the diagnostics of HCAP.
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PMID:Diagnostic strategies for healthcare-associated pneumonia. 1919 85

The number of individuals receiving health care outside the hospital setting, including home wound care or infusion therapy, dialysis, nursing homes, and similar settings is constantly increasing. One of the most frequent causes of hospitalization and mortality in these patients is pneumonia. Hence a new class of pneumonia has been identified: healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP). The last American Thoracic Society/Infectious Disease Society of America (ATS/IDSA) guidelines define specific criteria to identify HCAP; however, the clinical practice suggests that the presence of indwelling devices (permanent catheters, etc.) may also be considered an additional criterion. Different studies have shown that, in comparison with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients, HCAP patients are significantly older, have a higher number of comorbidities (cerebrovascular diseases, congestive heart failure, dementia, and diabetes mellitus) and show worse functional status before admission. It has also been observed that HCAP differs from CAP in terms of clinical presentation, risk factors, etiology, prognostics, and, likely, therapeutic approach. The clinical presentation of HCAP is often unusual because it is frequently conditioned by advanced age, multiple chronic comorbidities, and neurological disorders. Classic respiratory symptoms of pneumonia are often mild in HCAP, whereas extrapulmonary manifestations, including mental confusion and gastrointestinal disorders, are frequent. HCAP patients, commonly present a worse clinical presentation (hypoxemia, altered consciousness, Fine score, multilobar infiltrates, etc.) than CAP, and a mortality rate close to that of hospital-acquired pneumonia. Many studies have attributed these findings to a nosocomial etiology [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, etc.] with a high frequency of multidrug-resistant infections (MRIs), even though this remains controversial. Further investigation on microbial composition and MRI risk factors of HCAP is fundamental because no definitive therapeutic indications are currently available.
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PMID:Current perspective of the HCAP problem: is it CAP or is it HAP? 1929 21

The site of care decision is one of the most important in the management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Several scoring systems have been developed to predict mortality risk in CAP, and these have been applied to guide physicians about whether patients should be admitted to the hospital or to the intensive care unit (ICU). However, these tools were initially developed to predict mortality risk, and studies have demonstrated that the risk for death does not always equate with need for hospitalization or ICU care. The most widely studied scoring systems are the Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and the CURB-65 (a modification of the British Thoracic Society rule). Each has advantages and limitations, with the more-complex PSI developed to identify low-mortality risk patients, and the CURB-65, which is simpler, being developed to easily identify more severely ill individuals. No scoring system can replace clinical judgement about the admission decision, and prospective studies have shown that physicians still admit at least 30-60% of low mortality risk patients when using the PSI to guide this decision. Limitations of these prognostic tools include their variable utility in the elderly, and their failure to include certain comorbidities (COPD, immune suppression) and social factors, in their calculations. The need for ICU care is also not well-defined by measuring the PSI or CURB-65, and other tools such as those developed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society (IDSA/ATS) guideline committee and the SMART-COP rule may have greater utility for this purpose. In the future, measurements of serum biomarkers, such as procalcitonin, may augment the information provided by prognostic scoring tools for patients with CAP.
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PMID:Making sense of scoring systems in community acquired pneumonia. 1935 70

Infections with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) belong to the AIDS-defining illnesses of HIV infection. Severe immunosuppression with CD4+ lymphocyte counts lower than 50 cells/microl is a risk factor for the acquaintance of NTM infections. More than 90% of NTM infections in HIV-seropositive individuals are caused by bacteria of the M. avium complex. The manifestations of the disease are heterogeneous and not specific for the causative mycobacterial species. Furthermore, the differentiation between infection and colonisation can be challenging, especially when NTM are isolated from respiratory specimen. Diagnosis and therapy are recommended according to the guidelines of the American Thoracic Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA). The treatment success relies on the effects of antiretroviral therapy and a combination of 2 - 4 antimycobacterial antibiotics tailored to the NTM species. In vitro resistance testing often does not predict the clinical response. Interactions with antiretroviral medications are common. The complexity of HIV/NTM co-infection is discussed from an epidemiological, microbiological and clinical perspective.
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PMID:[Infections with non-tuberculous mycobacteria and HIV]. 2051 1


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