Multimodality Imaging in Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease

Interstitial lung disease is a well-recognised manifestation and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with connective tissue diseases. Interstitial lung disease may arise in the context of an established connective tissue disease or be the initial manifestation of an otherwise occult autoimmune disorder. Early detection and characterisation are paramount for adequate patient management and require a multidisciplinary approach, in which imaging plays a vital role. Computed tomography is currently the imaging method of choice; however, other imaging techniques have recently been investigated, namely ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron-emission tomography, with promising results. The aim of this review is to describe the imaging findings of connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease and explain the role of each imaging technique in diagnosis and disease characterisation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A rare cause of miliary pattern and respiratory failure â Benign metastasizing leiomyoma

Open Access funded by Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia Under a Creative Commons license. © 2016 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Surgical risk evaluation of lung cancer in COPD patients â A cohort observational study

Coexistence between pulmonary cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is frequent and is anticipated to be lead to high worldwide mortality in the next decades. The most powerful therapeutic approach for non-small cell lung carcinoma is lung surgical resection. However, in COPD patients, this approach bears a higher mortality and morbidity risk, thus requiring an accurate pre-operatory evaluation of the surgical risk comprising a clinical and functional assessment at rest, as well as a cardiopulmonary exercise test. In this observational study, factors associated with cardiopulmonary complications within 30 days after tumor resection surgery were investigated in a cohort of patients with COPD and lung cancer assigned to perform a cardiopulmonary exercise test.This study included 50 patients (46 men, 92.0%) with a mean age of 64.7 years old (standard deviation 7.9), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) of 61.8% (SD 19.0%) and carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) of 46.0% (SD 14.8%).Complications were observed in eighteen patients (36.0%) including 2 deaths (4.0%). Peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) expressed in percentage of the predicted value was the only parameter showing a statistically significant difference between the groups with and without complications (p = 0.027). The best value of VO2peak to discriminate complications occurrence was 61.0%.This study highlights the relevance of the cardiopulmonary exercise test in the risk assessment of pulmonary resection surgery in patients with COPD. The VO2peak (percentage of predicted value) is shown to be associated with complications within 30 days after surgery. Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Lung cancer, Cardiopulmonary exercise testing, Postoperative complication

Revista Portuguesa de Pneumología Surgical risk evaluation of lung cancer in COPD patients ---A cohort observational study-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/). Surgical risk evaluation of lung cancer in COPD patients 267

Abstract Coexistence between pulmonary cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is frequent and is anticipated to be lead to high worldwide mortality in the next decades. The most powerful therapeutic approach for non-small cell lung carcinoma is lung surgical resection. However, in COPD patients, this approach bears a higher mortality and morbidity risk, thus requiring an accurate pre-operatory evaluation of the surgical risk comprising a clinical and functional assessment at rest, as well as a cardiopulmonary exercise test. In this observational study, factors associated with cardiopulmonary complications within 30 days after tumor resection surgery were investigated in a cohort of patients with COPD and lung cancer assigned to perform a cardiopulmonary exercise test. This study included 50 patients (46 men, 92.0%) with a mean age of 64.7 years old (standard deviation 7.9), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) of 61.8% (SD 19.0%) and carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) of 46.0% (SD 14.8%). Complications were observed in eighteen patients (36.0%) including 2 deaths (4.0%). Peak oxygen uptake (VO 2peak ) expressed in percentage of the predicted value was the only parameter showing a statistically significant difference between the groups with and without complications (p = 0.027). The best value of VO 2peak to discriminate complications occurrence was 61.0%. This study highlights the relevance of the cardiopulmonary exercise test in the risk assessment of pulmonary resection surgery in patients with COPD. The VO 2peak (percentage of predicted value) is shown to be associated with complications within 30 days after surgery

Current practices in home mechanical ventilation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A real-life cross-sectional multicentric study

Home mechanical ventilation (HMV) use in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is becoming increasingly widespread. The aim of this study was to provide an accurate description of the current practices and clinical characteristics of COPD patients on HMV in Portugal. The study was designed as a cross-sectional, multicenter real-life study of COPD patients established on HMV for at least 30 days. Data related to clinical characteristics, adaptation and ventilatory settings were collected. The study included 569 COPD patients on HMV from 15 centers. The majority were male, with a median age of 72 years and a high prevalence of obesity (43.2%) and sleep apnea (45.8%). A high treatment compliance was observed (median 8h/day), 48.7% with inspiratory positive airway pressure ≥ 20 cmH2O and oronasal masks were the preferred interface (91.7%). There was an equal distribution of patients starting HMV during chronic stable condition and following an exacerbation. Patients in stable condition were initiated in the outpatient setting in 92.3%. Despite the differences in criteria and setting of adaptation and a slightly lower BMI in patients starting HMV following an exacerbation, we found no significant differences regarding age, gender, ventilation pressures, time on HMV, usage, severity of airflow obstruction or current arterial blood gas analysis (ABGs) in relation to patients adapted in stable condition. Patients were highly compliant with the therapy. In agreement with most recent studies and recommendations, there seems to be a move towards higher ventilation pressures, increased use of oronasal masks and an intent to obtain normocapnia. This study shows that chronic hypercapnic and post exacerbation patients do not differ significantly regarding patient characteristics, physiological parameters or ventilatory settings with one exception: chronic hypercapnic patients are more often obese and, subsequently, more frequently present OSA.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio