Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) This review document is periodically updated and reposted as new information is published. Please comment below with your suggestions for inclusion in upcoming updates of this review. (More PulmCCM topic reviews) The diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is rapidly evolving, [… read more]
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) 2012 Review (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) This document is updated periodically as new research findings in IPF are published. What Causes IPF? (Etiology/Pathogenesis of IPF) Since it’s still called “idiopathic,” you probably figured out already that the cause(s) of IPF remain unknown. Researchers use a paradigm for studying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis called [… read more]
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency: Review & Update More PulmCCM Topic Updates Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is underrecognized and by implication undertreated. But many people with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency are asymptomatic and will never develop significant emphysema, and the benefits of antiprotease replacement therapy are still unknown. Should you routinely test your patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [… 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]
Superior Vena Cava Syndrome: A Cancer-Related Medical Emergency (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) Multiple cancers are expected to rise in prevalence in the U.S. over the coming decades, and so is the risk for cancer-related medical emergencies. For a few, superior vena cava syndrome (SVC syndrome) will be the first manifestation of their cancer. It’s important [… read more]
Pulmonologists become fairly good semi-professional chest radiologists simply by showing up, paying attention and working hard during their training, and making an effort to keep learning throughout their careers. We have the advantage over radiologists of actually being able to “clinically correlate” the findings with what’s really going on, and to integrate that into our understanding [… read more]
(image: Wikipedia) Anyone who has ever rounded in an ICU with a nurse manager knows that challenging or questioning the utility of the ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) bundle is a losing proposition — one likely to get you labeled as a wiseguy troublemaker. Thanks to ventilator bundles’ endorsement by the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement, [… read more]
Everyone knows that when you’re really sick, going to the ICU–that place with all the beeping monitors, hypervigilant staff, and high-tech invasive gadgetry–might save your life. But what if in certain situations, transfer to an ICU bed could actually worsen a person’s condition, or even hasten their demise? Hannah Wunsch of Columbia U. suggests it’s [… read more]
Most studies on smoking and its well-known health risks have been performed in middle-aged adults (younger than 60). In a large epidemiological study published in the June 11, 2012 Archives of Internal Medicine, Carolin Gellert, Ben Schottker, and Hermann Brenner showed that (spoiler alert!!) smoking’s excess risks extend to older adults, as well. Just as importantly, [… read more]
Want to keep up with sleep, without falling asleep? We’ll try to make it easy for you: Here are some of the latest and most notable articles in sleep medicine. (This summary will be updated and re-posted as new research is published. Please suggest articles for inclusion in the comments or by email.) Obstructive Sleep [… read more]
The past decade has seen an explosion in the number of clinical trials; there are now more than 10,000 new trials registered each year. Although clinical trials’ quality is improving somewhat, most are still small and single-center and a large proportion do not adhere with reporting requirements, raising serious questions as to what we are [… read more]
Remember that weird advice we were taught as physicians-in-training to give to smoking patients before an upcoming surgery? “You should quit smoking, but not within the 2 weeks just before your surgery.” (It sounds off-key to me even as I write it now.) Based on … what? Some medical lore passed down from a decades-old study [… read more]
The content previously here was removed at the request of the American College of Chest Physicians. For the ACCP 9th edition clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), please visit the ACCP website. PulmCCM is not affiliated with ACCP or Chest.
Drowning: 2012 Review (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) There are a thousand ways to die (it’s even a TV show), but few seem as horrible and inspire such primal fear as death by drowning. Drowning is uncommon but by no means rare in the U.S.: it’s the second leading cause of death by injury in the [… read more]
(image: flickrCC) Why do we test chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients for bronchodilator responsiveness (besides getting to charging a few extra bucks for it)? If I am reading this article right, the answer is, there’s no good reason. Consider this: Bronchodilator responsiveness (BDR) or the lack thereof does not distinguish COPD from asthma. Bronchodilator [… read more]
The content previously here was removed at the request of the American College of Chest Physicians. For the ACCP 9th edition clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), please visit the ACCP website. PulmCCM is not affiliated with ACCP or Chest.
(image: People’s Pharmacy) Sure to re-light controversy around Pfizer’s varenicline (Chantix): a new study concludes the smoking cessation drug likely carries no increased risk for cardiovascular events. Judith Prochaska and Joan Hilton (University of California – San Francisco) report the results in the May 4 BMJ. Sonal Singh (Johns Hopkins) et al’s previous meta-analysis, reported in CMAJ [… read more]
Mechanical Ventilation in ARDS: Overview Mechanical ventilation in ARDS is almost always required, as people with acute respiratory distress syndrome are by definition severely hypoxemic. Yet mechanical ventilation itself can further injure damaged lungs(so-called ventilator induced lung injury); minimizing any additional damage while maintaining adequate gas exchange (“compatible with life”) is the central goal of mechanical [… read more]
Reimbursement for Palliative Care in the ICU By Intensivists To an intensivist, providing palliative care often means having multiple time-consuming and emotionally challenging interactions with families struggling to cope with the impending loss of their loved one. The emotional content of these interactions can be strongly positive, negative, or somewhere in between, but frequently it’s [… read more]
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