Warfarin is the best drug for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. In people with a-fib for whom warfarin was unsuitable (unstable INR, unlikely adherence, etc, but excluding those with prior bleeding on warfarin), twice daily oral direct Xa inhibitor apixaban had a hazard ratio of 0.45 over aspirin for the primary outcome of stroke (absolute [… read more]
Normal sleep in African-Americans and Caucasians: Ruiter ME, Sleep Medicine 2011;12:209-214. Race & racial differences in sleep review.
Occupational asthma – Assessment, treatment, compensation: Cowl TC, CHEST 2011;139:674-681.
Pulmonary Sarcoidosis: Concise Clinical Review. Baughman RP, AJRCCM 2011;183:573-581.
Treating NSCLC with tyrosine kinase / EGFR inhibitors erlotinib & gefitinib: Cataldo VD, NEJM 2011;364:947-955. Non small cell lung cancer chemotherapy treatment review.
Radiation risks from imaging; pharmacy and lactation; critical illness; interventional chest procedures; asthma; smoking; cystic fibrosis; pneumonia; infiltrative lung diseases; pulmonary embolism; pulmonary hypertension, and sleep-disordered breathing in pregnancy. Coming in just under 200 pages. Clinics in Chest Medicine 2011;32:1-198.
Imaging, airflow, rhinosinusitis, congestion, allergies, the sense of smell … more than a dozen articles on “the other airway” is nothing to sneeze at. Proc Am Thorac Soc 2011; 8: 1-140.
Pleural imaging; CHF pleural effusions; hepatic hydrothorax; parapneumonic effusions and empyema; malignant pleural effusions and disease; chylothorax; thoracoscopy; the chest tube size debate; pneumothorax — did they miss anything? In 130 pages, probably not much. Sem Resp Crit Care Med Dec 2010.
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing in people with heart and lung disease: Arena R, Circulation 2011;123:668-680.
Point-of-care ultrasonography: Moore CL, NEJM 2011;364:749-757.
Clinical Course & Prediction of Survival in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Ley B, AJRCCM 2011;183:431-440.
Pulmonary Complications of Lung Transplantation: Ahmad, CHEST 2011;139:402-411.
ARDS and multi-organ failure: Curr Opin Crit Care 2011;17:1-6. Hemodynamic monitoring of ventilated patients: Ibid, pp. 36-42 The ‘ABCDE’ bundle for critical care: Ibid, pp. 43-49. Managing severely hypoxemic patients: Ibid.
Ciclesonide, a new inhaled corticosteroid that seems to cause thrush less often than others, reached for equivalency with salmeterol/fluticasone in mild persistent asthma. Ciclesonide was better than placebo in controlling asthma but Advair users had a longer time to first asthma exacerbation. CHEST 2011;139: online supplement. A Cochrane review on ciclesonide could not establish its [… read more]
Inspiratory muscle training in COPD: Gosselink R, ERJ 2011;37:416-425.
Priou et al followed 130 patients with OHS after initiation with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation. Mean follow up was 4 years. Most (96) were started on NPPV in the stable state; 38 had had an acute hypercapneic exacerbation. Survival at 1 year was 97.5%; 2 years (93%); 3 years (88%); 5 years (77%). The large [… read more]
Cavallazzi et al reviewed 10 cohort studies and concluded that compared to daytime admission, being admitted to an ICU at night did not increase the odds ratio for mortality. Being admitted on a weekend supposedly did, but the odds ratio was only 1.08. CHEST 2010;138:68-75. FREE FULL TEXT