Moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be an auto-immunity problem, according to researchers in Spain, who studied the presence of auto-antibodies in patients with COPD and compared them to levels of control subjects. They found that a significant number of patients with COPD had significant levels of auto-antibodies circulating in their blood, about 5 to 10 times the level in controls.
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may blame their daytime difficulties on simple sleepiness, but new research suggests that their brains may be to blame. Specifically, their cognitive challenges may be caused by structural deficits in gray matter, brought on by the intermittent oxygen deprivation that comes with OSA.
The decision to stop life-support for incapacitated and critically ill patients is, for surrogate decision makers, often fraught with moral and ethical uncertainty, and long-term emotional consequences. But as difficult as these decisions are, more than half of surrogate decision makers prefer to have full authority over the choice than to share or cede that power to physicians, according to a recent study out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Long term exposure to low-level air pollution may increase the risk of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to researcher s in Denmark. While acute exposure of several days to high level air pollution was known to be a risk factor for exacerbation in pre-existing COPD, until now there had been no studies linking long-term air pollution exposure to the development or progression of the disease.
In the largest human study to date on the topic, researchers have uncovered evidence of the possible influence of human sex hormones on the structure and function of the right ventricle (RV) of the heart.
Exacerbations in cystic fibrosis (CF) may be linked to chronic infection with a bacterium called Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, which was previously thought to simply colonize the CF lung. The finding that chronic infection with S. maltophilia is independently linked with an increased risk of exacerbations gives clinicians and researchers a new potential measure of the health status of CF patients, as well as a new potential target in fighting their disease.
Even children of a healthy weight who have an imbalanced metabolism due to poor diet or exercise may be at increased risk of asthma, according to new research, which challenges the widespread assumption that obesity itself is a risk factor for asthma.
There may be no simple one-size-fits-all approach to improving end-of-life care in ICU settings, according to a recent study from some of the world’s leading researchers in palliative care.
New evidence linking the use of acetaminophen to development of asthma and eczema suggests that even monthly use of the drug in adolescents may more than double risk of asthma in adolescents compared to those who used none at all; yearly use was associated with a 50 percent increase in the risk of asthma.
Smokers who are exposed to wood smoke, either through home heating and cooking or through ambient neighborhood pollution, are not only at increased risk of COPD, but are also more likely to have epigenetic changes in the DNA that further increase their risk of COPD and related pulmonary problems.
Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) recover from exacerbations equally well if they are treated at home or in a hospital, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Furthermore, longer treatment with antibiotics does not appear to offer any additional benefit over shorter courses.
A new study from researchers in Ottawa and Toronto suggests that a commonly used type of bone marrow stem cell may be able to help treat sepsis, a deadly condition that can occur when an infection spreads throughout the body.
Exposure to high levels of fungus may increase the risk of severe asthma attacks among people with certain chitinase gene variants, according to a study from Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Daily use of probiotics reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients by almost half, according to new research from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), a known cause of cardiovascular diseases.
Doctors have long known that snoring is hazardous to health for a number of reasons. In addition to restless nights and increased daytime sleepiness, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has a series of associated health problems, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
A new preclinical model of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may lead to improved research and ultimately better therapies for this life-threatening problem, according to its developers, researchers at the University of South Alabama.
In non-sleepy patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events and hypertension, according to researchers from Spain.
Gene therapy has been shown to have positive effects in rat models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may no longer have to spend an expensive and uncomfortable night at a sleep center to monitor their sleep-disordered breathing. According to new research, those who performed sleep testing in their home with portable monitors showed similar improvements after three months of treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in daytime function as compared to patients who underwent overnight testing in a sleep center.
Early tracheotomy in ICU patients on mechanical ventilation (MV) did not reduce mortality when compared to later tracheotomy in a study of cardiac surgery patients requiring prolonged ventilation in a Paris study.
Children who undergo brief periods of intense exercise may exhibit lung dysfunction or other symptoms similar to those experienced by asthma patients, even when no history of asthma exists, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of California’s Irvine and Miller Children’s Hospital.
The following are late-breaking abstracts to be presented at the International Conference from May 14-19, 2010. Please click on the links below to view the associated abstract. Please observe embargo times that follow the titles.
A new therapy shows promise for patients with mild idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. According to researchers in Japan, inhaled N-acetylcysteine (NAC) monotherapy preserves more lung function in some idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients than no therapy.
Human stem cells administered intravenously can restore alveolar epithelial tissue to a normal function in a novel ex vivo perfused human lung after E. coli endotoxin-induced acute lung injury (ALI), according to research from the University of California San Francisco.
Adult patients without health insurance admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in Pennsylvania hospitals are at a 21 percent increased risk of death compared to similar patients with private insurance, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. The difference in mortality risk was not explained by patient characteristics or differences in care at the hospital level, suggesting that uninsured patients might receive poorer quality care.
Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) can prevent critical illness polyneuromyopathy (CIPNM), according to Greek researchers. CIPNM is an acquired limb and respiratory muscle weakness that is a common and serious problem among intensive care unit patients, and can result in prolonged ICU and hospital stay. EMS can also shorten the duration of weaning from mechanical ventilation and the length of ICU stay.
ICU-acquired infection rates are not an indication of patients’ mortality risk, according to researchers the University of Pennsylvania, undermining a central tenet of many pay-for-performance initiatives.
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) may reduce muscle atrophy in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to Canadian researchers.
Direct Immunofluorescence Assay (DFA) testing for H1N1 influenza (“swine flu”) is unreliable in ICU patients, according to a new study from Stanford University. Multiple methods exist for diagnosing influenza, but data on the utility and accuracy of these tests for H1N1 are still emerging, given the relatively recent onset of the epidemic.
Sleep apnea may cause metabolic changes that increase insulin resistance, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The intermittent hypoxia associated with sleep apnea causes a distinct drop in insulin sensitivity in mice, even though chronic hypoxia, such as that associated with high altitude, did not.
Google Flu Trends is not as accurate at estimating rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza as CDC national surveillance programs, according to a new study from the University of Washington.
Patients who encounter serious lung diseases in middle age, despite an absence of family history or other predisposing factors, may still have their genes to blame, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
High school student will present findings on the use of repeated xrays among children on home mechanical ventilation.
People with asthma may be well-advised to avoid heavy, high-fat meals, according to new research. Individuals with asthma who consumed a high-fat meal showed increased airway inflammation just hours after the binge, according to Australian researchers who conducted the study. The high fat meal also appeared to inhibit the response to the asthma reliever medication Ventolin (albuterol).
Patients with severe asthma who use an internet-supported strategy and daily monitoring of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) were able to control their asthma with lower overall dosing of oral corticosteroids (OCS) than patients who underwent usual care, according to research from the Netherlands.
Female sex hormones may work with beta-agonists in reducing airway constriction, according to new bench research from the Mayo Clinic.
Children with severe asthma have more than 30 times the risk of developing adult chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) as adults compared to children without asthma, according to a prospective longitudinal cohort study from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
A new possible treatment to treat P. aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients appears to be promising, according to research to be presented at the ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans.
HIV-infected patients who are falsely diagnosed as having tuberculosis (TB) have higher rates of mortality than those who are correctly diagnosed with the disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at University of California-San Francisco and Makerere University-Kampala.
Long-term, regular use of vitamin E in women 45 years of age and older may help decrease the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by about 10 percent in both smokers and non-smokers, according to a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
There is no magic bullet to help patients with COPD improve their ability to function in daily life. In fact, the best advice they might get is “do by doing,” according to research to be presented at the ATS conference in New Orleans.
People who live in urban areas where particulate air pollution is high tend to have higher blood pressure than those who live in less polluted areas, according to researchers from the University of Dusiburg-Essen in Germany.
Obese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) stand to gain as much from pulmonary rehabilitation as their slimmer counterparts, even though as a group they have a lower exercise capacity, according to new research from the University Hospitals of Leicester in the UK.
Individuals at risk for clot-related diseases may benefit from taking common cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut.
An emerging technique designed to quickly distinguish between people with active and dormant tuberculosis may help health professionals diagnose the disease sooner, thereby potentially limiting early exposure to the disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Despite the fact that recent medical advances have allowed healthcare professionals to stabilize patients who would have otherwise died, many stabilized patients later develop organ system failure. In fact, acute renal failure is one of the biggest threats to critically ill patients: forty percent of patients with this condition die. And yet, there is an acute lack of clinical information—and even consensus on the definition of renal failure in critical care settings—that experts cannot even agree upon its name.
Schedule of Press Conferences for ATS 2010 in New Orleans May 14-19, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
The American Thoracic Society (ATS) will hold its fourth annual patient-focused forum “Breathing Better with the ATS,” at the ATS International Conference in New Orleans this coming May. This event is free and open to the public. It organized and hosted by the ATS Public Advisory Roundtable (ATS PAR) and will be held on Saturday, May 15th from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Hilton Riverside Hotel in New Orleans, LA.
The ATS 2010 International Conference will feature two President's events with a focus on comparative effectiveness research adn patient quality.
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