New Approach Developed for Diagnosing COPD

Primary care clinicians may soon be able to provide an early diagnosis for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, using a new method. According to researchers, patients with COPD can be diagnosed with the help of... read more

The Life Cycle of Intensive Care Survivors

I started the Intensive care follow-up clinic to try to make sense of my work with critical patients and get feedback from their physical recovery. Over time, I verified that the patients presented not only physical effects,... read more

Noninvasive Ventilation in Hypercapnic COPD

Recently, Murphy and colleagues reported findings from a clinical trial designed to evaluate the effect of home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) with oxygen on time to readmission or death in patients with persistent hypercapnia... read more

Inspiratory Muscle Training Does Not Improve Clinical Outcomes in 3-week COPD Rehabilitation

The value of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in pulmonary rehabilitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unclear. The RIMTCORE (Routine Inspiratory Muscle Training within COPD Rehabilitation) randomised... read more

Differential Diagnosis Between Newly Diagnosed Asthma and COPD Using EBC Metabolomics

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are heterogeneous diseases with high pathological burden and healthcare costs. In the outpatient clinical practice, an accurate differential diagnosis is often very... read more

Human Airway Branch Variation and COPD

Susceptibility to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) beyond cigarette smoking is incompletely understood, although several genetic variants associated with COPD are known to regulate airway branch development. We... read more

The Fallacy of Time-to-Intervention Studies

We are barraged by time-to-intervention studies (door-to-balloon time, time-to-antibiotics, door-to-needle, etc.). However, it must be kept in mind that these studies are purely correlational in design. Such studies cannot... read more

TAC on Computed Tomography and the Risk of COPD Progression

Total Airway Count (TAC) may reflect the airway-related disease changes that accumulate in the “quiet” zone in early/mild Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), indicating that TAC acquired with commercially available... read more

Intensive Care Syndrome: Promoting Independence and Return to Employment (InS:PIRE)

Many patients suffer significant physical, social and psychological problems in the months and years following critical care discharge. At present, there is minimal evidence of any effective interventions to support this... read more

Diabetes Risks and Outcomes in COPD Patients

The relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes remains incompletely understood. This study evaluated diabetes risk and post-diabetes outcomes in COPD patients with and without exacerbations.... read more

Challenges and Opportunities for a Precision Medicine Approach to Critical Illness

Precision medicine in critical care is a key part of our present and future. However, many challenges limit its application for all patients in the ICU. Complex acute illness among patients with multi-morbidity, integrated... read more

Excess Ventilation in COPD-Heart Failure Overlap

Heightened neural drive promoting a ventilatory response beyond that required to overcome an increased "wasted" ventilation led to hypocapnia and poor exercise ventilatory efficiency in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease–heart... read more

Hospital Factors May Influence NIV Outcomes Even in Low-Evidence Use

Strong evidence supports use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) for patients with respiratory distress from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure – i.e., strong evidence conditions (SECs). A new study of... read more

A simple algorithm for the identification of clinical COPD phenotypes

This study aimed to identify simple rules for allocating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients to clinical phenotypes identified by cluster analyses.Data from 2409 COPD patients of French/Belgian COPD cohorts... read more

Detecting Undiagnosed Atrial Fibrillation with Cardiac Monitors

A group of researchers led by James A. Reiffel, M.D., did a study to determine the incidence of previously undiagnosed atrial fibrillation in high-risk patients with the use of insertable cardiac monitors (ICM). The results... read more

Steroids for severe CAP. Should I?

Steroids. I always have mixed feelings about them. It's a Love & Hate relationship inside my head. On one hand I cannot stand those who claim steroids are the critical care's Holy Grail. Steroids for sepsis, ARDS, trauma,... read more

Drug does not significantly reduce duration of mechanical ventilation for COPD patients

Among mechanically ventilated patients with COPD, administration of the respiratory stimulant acetazolamide did not significantly reduce the duration of invasive mechanical ventilation.... read more

The Overlaps of Asthma or COPD with OSA

Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are the most common respiratory disorders worldwide. Given demographic and environmental changes, prevalence for each is likely to increase. Some... read more

Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration

EBUS-TBNA is a safe procedure. The highest complication rate reported is 1.44%. Additionally, the scope damage could be encountered in 1.33% of cases and occasionally the TBNA needle could malfunction. The complications are... read more

COPD Patients Who Live Alone are Less Active

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who live with a spouse, partner, or other caregiver are more active than patients who live alone, and are also more likely to participate in pulmonary rehabilitation... read more

Clinical Impact of COPD on Non-cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis

Clinical impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. A study on 1,790 patients from the Spanish Bronchiectasis Historical Registry. Patients with BE related to COPD have the same... read more

Reduced Risk of Acute Exacerbation of COPD after Bariatric Surgery

Obesity is common among individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associated with increased COPD morbidities. However, little is known about the impact of weight reduction on COPD-related outcomes... read more