Recently added articles from American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine:

Arrhythmias in the ICU: What Do We Know?

Jul 01, 2008; Heinz, Gottfried ... Management of arrhythmias is undoubtedly one of the major problems in emergency and critical care medicine; however, there are only limited data on the frequency of admissions with a primary arrhythmia diagnosis and on the incidence and type of arrhythmia during the intensive care unit (ICU) ...

Reduced Lung Function in Cystic Fibrosis: A Primary or Secondary Phenotype?

Jul 01, 2008; Davis, Stephanie D; Ratjen, Felix ... During the past decade, advances in the early assessment of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease have led to an improved understanding of its pathophysiology, but many questions still remain unanswered (1). The earliest airway abnormalities of focal, distal mucous plugging leading to peripheral ...

Malignant Pleural Effusions: Fixing the Leaky Faucet

Jul 01, 2008; Lee, Y C Gary; Wilkosz, Sylwia ... Malignant pleural effusion affects over 150,000 patients each year in the United States, often depriving patients with cancer of their quality of life, and is associated with significant health care costs (1). Metastatic adenocarcinomas, especially from primary lung and breast cancers, are the ...

Catch Them While You Can!

Jul 01, 2008; DeRiemer, Kathryn; De Jong, Bouke C ... The estimated 9.2 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) and 1.7 million annual deaths from TB during 2006 are a bleak reminder that new, creative strategies are needed to prevent and controlTB worldwide (1). For the past 15 years, molecular epidemiologic techniques have been used to identify ...

Panic Attacks and Perception of Inspiratory Resistive Loads in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Jul 01, 2008; Livermore, Nicole; Butler, Jane E; Sharpe, Louise; McBain, Rachel A; Gandevia, Simon C; McKenzie, David K ... Rationale: Panic attacks are common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the prevalence of panic disorder is at least 10 times higher than in the general population. In the current study, we examined resistive load perception in patients with COPD with and without panic ...

Lung Function Loss, Smoking, Vitamin C Intake, and Polymorphisms of the Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase Genes

Jul 01, 2008; Siedlinski, Mateusz; Postma, Dirkje S; van Diemen, Cleo C; Blokstra, Anneke; Smit, Henriette A; Boezen, H Marike ... Rationale: Smoking-induced oxidative stress contributes to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease characterized by low lung function and increasing mortality worldwide. The counterbalance for this effect may be provided by, for example, increased intake of the antioxidant vitamin ...

Incidence and Prognosis of Sustained Arrhythmias in Critically Ill Patients

Jul 01, 2008; Annane, Djillali; Sébille, Véronique; Duboc, Denis; Heuzey, Jean-Yves Le; Sadoul, Nicolas; Bouvier, Erik; Bellissant, Eric ... Rationale: Sustained arrhythmias are common in postoperative and cardiac intensive care units (ICUs), but their incidence and prognosis in general ICUs have never been reported. Objectives: To estimate the incidence and prognosis of sustained arrhythmias in a general ICU ...

Anemia, Blood Loss, and Blood Transfusions in North American Children in the Intensive Care Unit

Jul 01, 2008; Bateman, Scot T; Lacroix, Jacques; Boven, Katia; Forbes, Peter; Barton, Roger; Thomas, Neal J; Jacobs, Brian; Markovitz, Barry; Goldstein, Brahm; Hanson, James H; Li, H Agnes; Randolph, Adrienne G ... Rationale: Minimizing exposure of children to blood products is desirable. Objectives: We aimed to understand anemia development, blood loss, and red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Methods: Prospective, multicenter, 6-month ...

Lung Inflammation Induced by Lipoteichoic Acid or Lipopolysaccharide in Humans

Jul 01, 2008; Hoogerwerf, Jacobien J; de Vos, Alex F; Bresser, Paul; van der Zee, Jaring S; Pater, Jennie M; de Boer, Anita; Tanck, Michael; Lundell, Daniel L; Her-Jenh, Chung; Draing, Christian; Aulock, Sonja von; van der Poll, Tom ... Rationale: Recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) is considered to be important for an appropriate immune response against pathogens that enter the lower airways. Objectives: We studied the effects of two different TLR agonists relevant for ...

Lung Function from Infancy to the Preschool Years after Clinical Diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis

Jul 01, 2008; Kozlowska, Wanda J; Bush, Andrew; Wade, Angela; Aurora, Paul; Carr, Siobhán B; Castle, Rosie A; Hoo, Ah-Fong; Lum, Sooky; Price, John; Ranganathan, Sarath; Saunders, Clare; Stanojevic, Sanja; Stroobant, John; Wallis, Colin; Stocks, Janet ... Rationale: After recent standardization of forced expiratory maneuvers for both infants and preschool children, longitudinal measurements are now possible from birth. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the evolution of lung function during the first 6 years of life ...

Zoledronic Acid Is Effective against Experimental Malignant Pleural Effusion

Jul 01, 2008; Stathopoulos, Georgios T; Moschos, Charalampos; Loutrari, Heleni; Kollintza, Androniki; Psallidas, Ioannis; Karabela, Sophia; Magkouta, Sophia; Zhou, Zongmin; Papiris, Spyros A; Roussos, Charis; Kalomenidis, Ioannis ... Rationale: Aminobiphosphonates, such as zoledronic acid (ZA), exert potent indirect antitumor effects and are currently being tested against human solid tumors. The antitumor actions of aminobiphosphonates, including angiostasis, are relevant to the pathogenesis of malignant pleural effusion ...

Longitudinal Evaluation of Airway Function 21 Years after Preterm Birth

Jul 01, 2008; Narang, Indra; Rosenthal, Mark; Cremonesini, David; Silverman, Mike; Bush, Andrew ... Rationale: There are limited longitudinal data about respiratory morbidity and lung function after preterm birth into adulthood. Objectives: To determine the evolution of respiratory symptoms, spirometry, and airway hyperresponsiveness of ex-preterm subjects from childhood into ...

Unilateral Ablation of Pre-Bötzinger Complex Disrupts Breathing during Sleep but Not Wakefulness

Jul 01, 2008; McKay, Leanne C; Feldman, Jack L ... Rationale: In adult rats, bilateral ablation of pre-Bötzinger complex (preBötC) neurokinin 1-expressing (NK1R) neurons leads to a progressive and irreversible disruption in breathing pattern, initially during sleep, eventually resulting in an ataxic breathing pattern during ...

Platelet-derived Growth Factor Expression and Function in Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Jul 01, 2008; Perros, Frédéric; Montani, David; Dorfmüller, Peter; Durand-Gasselin, Ingrid; Tcherakian, Colas; Pavec, Jérôme Le; Mazmanian, Michel; Fadel, Elie; Mussot, Sacha; Mercier, Olaf; Hervé, Philippe; Emilie, Dominique; Eddahibi, Saadia; Simonneau, Gérald; Souza, Rogério ... Rationale: Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) promotes the proliferation and migration of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), and may play a role in the progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a condition characterized by proliferation of PASMCs resulting in the ...

Poly(ester amine)-mediated, Aerosol-delivered Akt1 Small Interfering RNA Suppresses Lung Tumorigenesis

Jul 01, 2008; Xu, Cheng-Xiong; Jere, Dhananjay; Jin, Hua; Chang, Seung-Hee; Chung, Youn-Sun; Shin, Ji-Young; Kim, Ji-Eun; Park, Sung-Jin; Lee, Yong-Hoon; Chae, Chan-Hee; Lee, Kee Ho; Beck, George R Jr; Cho, Chong-Su; Cho, Myung-Haing ... Rationale: The low efficiency of conventional therapies in achieving long-term survival of patients with lung cancer calls for the development of novel therapeutic options. Recent advances in aerosol-mediated gene delivery have provided the possibility of an alternative for the safe and ...

Is Salmeterol/Fluticasone Propionate Equivalent to Tiotropium Bromide in the Treatment of COPD?

Jul 01, 2008; Gillissen, Adrian ... To the Editor: I read with interest the article by Dr. Wedzicha and colleagues (1) wherein the authors compared clinical efficacy of a 104-week treatment with salmeterol/fluticasone propionate fixed combination (SFC) with a treatment with tiotropium bromide in chronic obstructive ...

Treatment Step Down Should Be Avoided at Entry in COPD Therapeutic Trials

Jul 01, 2008; Marchand, Eric ... To the Editor: Dr. Wedzicha and colleagues have published a study comparing the effect of salmeterol/fluticasone (SFC) and tiotropium on the prevention of exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (1). They did not show a difference between the two treatment arms for ...

Management of Patients with COPD: A Comparison of the INSPIRE and TORCH Studies/From the Authors

Jul 01, 2008; Middleton, Peter G; Wedzicha, Jadwiga A; Calverley, Peter M A; Seemungal, Terence A; Hagan, Gerry; Ansari, Zainab; Stockley, Robert A ... To the Editor: I read with interest the article by Dr. Wedzicha and colleagues, the INSPIRE study, which compared two different drug treatments for the management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (1). While the combination treatment of inhaled corticosteroid ...

Quality Control for Spirometry in Preschool Children/From the Authors

Jul 01, 2008; Nève, Véronique; Matran, Régis; Edmé, Jean-Louis; Davis, Stephanie; Aurora, Paul; Eigen, Howard; Beydon, Nicole; Lombardi, Enrico ... To the Editor: We read with great interest the "Official AmericanThoracic Society [ATS]/European Respiratory Society [ERS] Statement: Pulmonary Function Testing in Preschool Children" (1), and in particular section 3, in which recommendations for spirometry in preschool children were ...

Tuberculosis Outbreaks Predicted by Characteristics of First Patients in a DNA Fingerprint Cluster

Jul 01, 2008; Kik, Sandra V; Verver, Suzanne; van Soolingen, Dick; de Haas, Petra E W; Cobelens, Frank G; Kremer, Kristin; van Deutekom, Henk; Borgdorff, Martien W ... Rationale: Some clusters of patients who have Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates with identical DNA fingerprint patterns grow faster than others. It is unclear what predictors determine cluster growth. Objectives: To assess whether the development of a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak can be ...