image: Olympus EBUS Complication Rates <1% at Experienced Centers Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) — an ultrasound probe on the tip of a bronchoscope — allows real-time viewing of tissues beyond the bronchial wall. It enables more accurate and safer needle biopsies of lymph nodes and masses that abut the bronchial wall. EBUS is an exciting new [... read more]
How to Prevent Acute COPD Exacerbations Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are a major problem for many people living with COPD. Acute exacerbations or attacks occur more often in people with more severe COPD (about 1-2 per year), and these disease flares may either signal or cause a more rapid progression of [... read more]
image: Radiology Assistant Ground-Glass Nodules: If Growing, Assume Cancer Blair Westerly, MD The more CT scans that are performed, the more ground-glass opacities (GGO’s) are seen and what to do with these abnormalities can be difficult to ascertain for clinicians. With the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial showing a mortality benefit from low dose CT [... read more]
“Like this … kind of” Passive Leg Raise Improved Management of Patients in Shock* (*some assembly required) by Blair Westerly, MD Providing the right amount of fluid is vital in a critically ill patient, as both too little and too much can result in poor outcomes. Yet even with this understanding, the clinical assessment of [... read more]
In Most Patients with Pulmonary Embolism, Central Clot is Worse than Peripheral by Brett Ley, MD Pulmonary embolism (PE) presents with a wide range of clinical severity and course. Management decisions (level of care, length of observation, and aggressive therapies such as thrombolysis) are generally based on a patient’s risk of a poor outcome. Guidelines recommend risk [... read more]
Chronic Cough and GERD: A Tangled Connection by Michael Peters, MD Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is considered to be one of the cardinal causes of chronic cough. A study in Chest challenges that fundamental concept, but comes up short in refuting it. What They Did Samantha Decalmer, Rachel Stovold, Jaclyn A. Smith et al conducted [... read more]
Procalcitonin to Guide Treatment of Pneumonia (More PulmCCM Topic Reviews) With mounting evidence for its utility as a biomarker for pneumonia, procalcitonin is one of the hottest 2012 topics in pulmonary & critical care. Procalcitonin tends to rise quickly as bacterial infections (but not viral infections) develop, increase with the severity of infection, and decline [... read more]
(This post is originally from March 2012, but a few people requested to see it again, so here it is. -MH) It started with a friendly pro/con debate in the December 2011 Chest, about whether lactate clearance or mixed venous oxygen saturation is a better “goal” for early goal-directed therapy in severe sepsis and septic shock. [... read more]
Adding Spiriva to LABA and Inhaled Steroid Might Improve COPD No strong outcomes-based evidence exists as to the benefits in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with tiotropium, long-acting beta-agonist and inhaled corticosteroid together — so called “triple therapy.” LABA and tiotropium together do provide additive bronchodilation over either agent alone, evidence suggests. However, only [... read more]
Is In-Flight Oxygen for Pulmonary Hypertension Necessary? After finding a high rate of symptoms among people with pulmonary hypertension during commercial air flights, Nareg Roubinian, C. Gregory Elliott, and Hubert Chen are recommending that everyone with significant pulmonary hypertension planning to take a flight longer than 2.5 hours should be evaluated for supplemental in-flight oxygen. [... read more]
(image: PneumRx) ATLANTA — In a small, open-label pilot study, bronchoscopically-placed metal coils that retract emphysematous lung, creating lung volume reduction without surgery, produced functional and airflow improvements in a majority of patients with severe COPD, the lead researcher reported at CHEST 2012. Investigators randomized 47 patients with severe emphysema type COPD to undergo either [... read more]
Like many other bodily functions, coughing is a complex phenomenon that is under both conscious and unconscious control. Coughing during an acute bronchitis or after inhaling a lungful of seawater is vigorous and involuntary. A slight tickle in the back of the throat that creeps up when we’re on a first date or in a [... read more]
Probiotics for Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) Do probiotics prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)? There’s a good biologic rationale: administering friendly commensal bacteria like Lactobacillus into the GI tract could suppress the emergence of more virulent gut bacteria like Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Citrobacter, which travel up the esophagus and sneak around endotracheal tube cuffs during mechanical [... read more]
Acute Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) of the Arm: from the ACCP Guidelines, 9th Ed. The ACCP published its 9th edition of their clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in February 2012, and we’re summarizing the 801-page long document by topic. (See also the other sections of the 9th edition ACCP recommendations.) Here we review the section on [... read more]
Acute Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) of the Leg: Initial Anticoagulant Therapy from the ACCP Guidelines, 9th Ed. The ACCP‘s 9th edition of their clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) were published in February 2012, and we’re summarizing the 801-page long document piece by piece. (See also the other sections of the 9th edition ACCP recommendations.) Here [... read more]
(image: Wikipedia) As one after another specialty society endorses routine lung cancer screening with chest CT scans, we all know a Nodule Storm is coming to a pulmonology clinic near you. Thankfully, smart people are asking how we can systematically and successfully handle this soon-to-be-common outpatient clinical problem. Most of these many thousands of nodules [... read more]
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might be the perfect disease to describe the American health care system. The condition is overwhelmingly due to our over-indulgence and under-activity; its expensive diagnosis (polysomnography) and best treatment (CPAP) help physicians and device manufacturers prosper while consternating those who pay (the government and insurance companies), who then threaten to cut off [... read more]
Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis 2012 Review (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (external intrinsic alveolitis) is an “orphan disease,” which means it’s uncommon and lacks any likely way to effectively “monetize” the disease with drugs or device therapy, resulting in its being largely ignored from a research funding standpoint. If you think you don’t know much about [... read more]
(image: Wikipedia) There are an estimated 200,000 pleural effusions due to malignancy each year in the U.S. alone, and these represent an important cause of suffering and limitation in functional ability for people living with advanced cancer. Pleurodesis (using talc or other sclerosants) and placement of indwelling pleural catheters are both accepted, reasonable approaches to the [... read more]
We may see it more often, but we doctors don’t really know anything more about death than anyone else, and we find it just as scary. Yet we are expected to spontaneously discuss death-as-a-coming-event with seriously ill patients who (we assume) probably want to avoid the subject, well, like the plague. Maybe they do. But [... read more]