Choosing Wisely, the initiative for medical cost-effectiveness (don’t call it rationing!) of the American Board of Internal Medicine, included the use of vasodilators for pulmonary hypertension owing to left heart disease or hypoxemic lung disease (WHO Groups II and III) as #2 on its top five “no-no’s” in its new pulmonology section. The “Five Things Physicians and [… read more]
Do I.V. Beta-Blockers Save Lives in Septic Shock? Catecholamines can be toxic — just ask anyone experiencing the heartbreak of tako-tsubo syndrome. Blocking the heart-flogging effects of the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine have long been known to improve long-term survival in congestive heart failure. People with septic shock might be the last group you’d consider giving [… read more]
ICU-related Dysphagia and Swallowing Disorders More than 700,000 people develop respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation each year in the U.S. alone, and those that survive are at elevated risk for developing swallowing dysfunction. The aspiration syndromes that follow can be devastating, especially if not recognized and addressed early. Denver’s Madison Macht et al provide a clinical [… read more]
Dupilumab, an injectable monoclonal antibody that inhibits signaling by interleukin-4 and interleukin-13, reduced asthma exacerbations by almost 90% while also improving asthma symptoms in a randomized trial. Participants had moderate-to-severe asthma that had previously been uncontrolled despite use of inhaled corticosteroids with long-acting beta-agonists. Twenty five million people in the U.S. — 8% of the population [… read more]
A large phase III randomized trial testing Ambrisentan (Letairis) for early idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was stopped early after an interim analysis of the data showed possible harm. The results were reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. Patients being treated with Letairis had more evidence of progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and were hospitalized more often, including [… read more]
Ultrasound-guided central venous catheter insertion: Standard of care, or preventing procedural skills? By Dr. Philippe Rola Ok, so let me preface this with the fact that I walk around with a handheld ultrasound rather than a stethoscope, and that I examine ALL patients with a focused cardiopulmonary and abdominal exam. My bias towards bedside ultrasound is [… read more]
24/7 Intensivist Coverage Does Not Improve Outcomes: Meta-Analysis The debate over whether ICUs should be staffed around the clock by intensivist physicians has simmered for more than 20 years, with opinions on both sides driven more by values and personal biases than evidence. Recent studies have confirmed the benefit of daytime intensivists in ICUs but failed [… read more]
Riociguat (Adempas) Gets FDA Indications for Pulmonary Hypertension That was fast. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved riociguat (brand name Adempas, by Bayer) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), on October 8 2013. Adempas is the first of a class of drugs for pulmonary hypertension [… read more]
Home Sleep Apnea Testing: New Standard is Bad Deal for Sleep Docs Sleep doctors in the U.S. have been doubling up on their Prilosec and putting their accountants on speed-dial since the federal government and insurers began signaling they plan to eventually run the $2,000-per-sleep-study gravy train off its rails. With an estimated 18 million people [… read more]
Tiotropium: Safe In Either Form Tiotropium (Spiriva) comes in two devices: the Respimat in Europe delivers a mist, while the Handihaler in the U.S. delivers a dry powder. The Respimat has been bronchodilating under a dark cloud in Europe for the past 2 years, since a BMJ meta-analysis suggested there was a 52% increased risk of [… read more]
Mechanical Ventilation in ARDS Due to Sepsis See all PulmCCM reviews of: Surviving Sepsis Guidelines Sepsis is one of the main causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in which the lungs are injured by circulating inflammatory mediators, resulting in severely impaired gas exchange usually requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. ARDS also results in poor lung [… read more]
Pulmonary Rehabilitation: No Benefit After 12 Months Light, Infrequent Workouts Don’t Sustain Fitness Gains Pulmonary rehabilitation (“pulmonary rehab”) is a dressed-up name for what are essentially supervised exercise programs for people living with chronic lung disease. Although pulmonary rehab programs often include multidimensional support (nutrition, education, breathing exercises and psychological counseling), it’s the exercise that produces [… read more]
Transfusion of Blood Products for Sepsis and Septic Shock See all the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines* *PulmCCM is not affiliated with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. People with severe sepsis and septic shock frequently experience what could be termed “hematologic failure” — abnormalities of blood cell lines and clotting / antithrombotic proteins that can occur in complex, [… read more]
Intubation Checklists in the ICU and ED Can They Save Lives? Endotracheal intubation in the ICU or emergency department is often challenging, to understate by a lot. Intubations outside the operating room are often emergent rush jobs on crashing, hypotensive, severely hypoxemic patients, or people with who have just self-extubated. Pulmonologists’ and emergency physicians’ familiarity [… read more]
E-Cigarettes Shown Effective as Smoking Cessation Aids Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes use battery power to vaporize a solution, usually containing nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol, glycerin, or polyethylene glycol, creating a puff of “smoke” that dissipates harmlessly. E-cigarettes deliver a hit of nicotine (about 1/4 to 1/2 that of a cigarette puff), but their vapor [… read more]
Vasopressors for Septic Shock (from the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines) See more from Surviving Sepsis Guidelines* *PulmCCM is not affiliated with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. Vasopressors are provided for septic shock that does not respond to fluid resuscitation. Norepinephrine (Levophed), epinephrine, vasopressin, phenylephrine (Neo-Synephrine), and dopamine are the most commonly used vasopressors for septic shock. To achieve adequate fluid [… read more]
Weight Gain After Quitting Smoking Usually Mild, Harmless Nicotine is an anorexigen, or appetite suppressant. This “benefit” of cigarette smoking is no secret, certainly not to teenage girls, who in surveys report smoking to stay thin. Even among women smokers over age 40, more than half said they would not quit smoking if it meant they would [… read more]
We are quickly approaching the 2013 Pittsburgh International Lung Conference on October 17-18, 2013. The theme, “Acute and Chronic Lung Infections: Novel Pathogens, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics aims to describe and discuss the latest clinical and research advances as they apply to respiratory infections by bringing together leading regional, national, and international experts in the field. [… read more]
Ultrasound Case 2 A 64 year-old man has tachycardia and dyspnea. Why? See All Ultrasound Cases You are called late at night by the surgical ward to the bedside of a 64 year-old male who is post-op day 2 for reversal of an ileostomy, following a right hemicolectomy for colon cancer 6 months previously. He [… read more]
Following “Surviving Sepsis” Guidelines Not Always the Best Care By Dr. Philippe Rola First of all, I would like to commend those involved in the Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s Guidelines. It is a tremendous endeavour that, without a doubt, has heightened awareness and their growing implementation has and will save many lives. I would, however, also [… read more]
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