550 research outputs found
Systemic lupus during pregnancy with refractory alveolar haemorrhage: recovery following termination of pregnancy
A case of refractory pulmonary hemorrhage in a pregnant 22-year-old with systemic lupus is presented. The clinical difficulty of management of pulmonary haemorrhage and lupus flare during pregnancy are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68549/2/10.1177_096120339700600909.pd
Arachidonic acid metabolism is altered in sarcoid alveolar macrophages,
Macrophages produce various arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites which may either enhance or suppress inflammatory processes. We investigated AA metabolite production by alveolar macrophages (AMs) from 11 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and 9 normal volunteers. We assessed the production of both cyclooxygenase products (prostaglandin (PG) E2, thromboxane B2 (TXB2), PGF2[alpha], and 6-keto-PGF1[alpha]) and lipoxygenase products (leukotrienes (LT) and hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs)) in AM cultures. We found that sarcoid AMs produced less PGE2, TXB2, 6-keto-PGF1[alpha], and HETEs in both the unstimulated and the calcium ionophore-stimulated states compared with normal AMs. Sarcoid AMs also produced less PGF2[alpha] and LTs in the unstimulated state after 1 hr of incubation, but following calcium ionophore stimulation, these differences did not achieve statistical significance. We conclude that sarcoid AMs have a reduced capacity to produce AA metabolites compared with that of normal AMs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26855/1/0000420.pd
Prognostic implications of physiologic and radiographic changes in idiopathic interstitial pneumonia
Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias are a diverse group of lung diseases
with varied prognoses. We hypothesized that changes in
physiologic and radiographic parameters would predict survival.
We retrospectively examined 80 patients with usual interstitial
pneumonia and 29 patients with nonspecific interstitial pneumonia.
Baseline characteristics were examined together with 6-month
change in forced vital capacity, diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide,
and ground glass infiltrate and fibrosis on high resolution computed
tomography. Patients with usual interstitial pneumonia were
more likely to have a statistically significant or marginally significant
decline in lung volume, diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide,
and an increase in ground glass infiltrates (p <= 0.08) compared
with patients with nonspecific interstitial pneumonia. For patients
with usual interstitial pneumonia, change in forced vital capacity
was the best physiologic predictor of mortality (p = 0.05). In a
multivariate Cox proportional hazards model controlling for histopathologic
diagnosis, gender, smoking history, baseline forced vital
capacity, and 6-month change in forced vital capacity, a decrease
in forced vital capacity remained an independent risk factor for
mortality (decrease > 10%; hazard ratio 2.47; 95% confidence interval
1.29, 4.73; p = 0.006). We conclude that a 6-month change
in forced vital capacity gives additional prognostic information to
baseline features for patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia.Supported by National Institutes of Health NHLBI grants P50HL46487, NIH/NCRR
3 MO1 RR00042-33S3, NIH/NIA P60 AG08808-06, NHLBI, 1 K24 HL04212, and
1 K23 HL68713.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91973/1/2003 AJRCCM - Prognostic Implications of Physiologic and Radiographic Changes in Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia.pd
Prognostic value of desaturation during a six minute walk test in Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia
Exercise-induced hypoxia is an index of the severity of interstitial
lung disease. We hypothesized that desaturation during a 6-minute
walk test would predict mortality for patients with usual interstitial
pneumonia (n = 83) and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (n =
22). Consecutive patients with biopsy-proven disease performed a
6-minute walk test between January 1996 and December 2001.
Desaturation was defined as a fall in oxygen saturation to 88% or
less during the 6-minute walk test. Desaturation was common (44
of 83 usual interstitial pneumonia and 8 of 22 nonspecific interstitial
pneumonia; chi square, p = 0.39). Patients with usual interstitial
pneumonia or nonspecific interstitial pneumonia who desaturated
had a significantly higher mortality than patients who did not desaturate
(respective log-rank tests, p = 0.0018, p = 0.0089). In patients
with usual interstitial pneumonia, the presence of desaturation was
associated with an increased hazard of death (hazard ratio, 4.2;
95% confidence interval, 1.40, 12.56; p = 0.01) after adjusting for
age, sex, smoking, baseline diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide,
FVC, and resting saturation.Weconclude that knowledge of desaturation
during a 6-minute walk test adds prognostic information for
patients with usual interstitial pneumonia and nonspecific interstitial
pneumonia.Supported in part by National Institutes of Health NHLBI Grant #P50HL46487,
NHLBI, 1 K24 HL04212, and 1 K23 HL68713.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91972/1/2003 AJRCCM - Prognostic value of desaturation during a six minute walk test in Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia.pd
Fibroblastic Foci in Usual Interstitial Pneumonia: Idiopathic versus Collagen Vascular Disease
A histologic feature of usual interstitial pneumonia is the presence of fibroblastic foci. As some patients with usual interstitial pneumonia and an underlying collagen vascular disease have a better prognosis, we hypothesized that they would have fewer fibroblastic foci. Pathologists reviewed surgical lung biopsies from 108 patients with usual interstitial pneumonia (nine with collagen vascular disease) and assigned a score (absent 0, mild 1, moderate 2, and marked 3) for fibroblastic foci. Patients with idiopathic usual interstitial pneumonia had a higher median profusion of fibroblastic foci (1.75 vs. 1.0, p = 0.003). Baseline characteristics were similar, although patients with a collagen vascular disease were younger, had a shorter duration of symptoms, and had a higher percentage of predicted total lung capacity. Profusion of fibroblastic foci was the most discriminative feature for separating idiopathic from collagen vascular disease–associated usual interstitial pneumonia (odds ratio 8.31; 95% confidence interval, 1.98, 59.42; p = 0.002 for a one-unit increase in fibroblastic foci score). No deaths were noted in the collagen vascular disease–associated usual interstitial pneumonia group; 52 deaths occurred in the idiopathic usual interstitial pneumonia group (log rank; p = 0.005). We conclude that patients with collagen vascular disease–associated usual interstitial pneumonia have fewer fibroblastic foci and improved survival.Supported in part by National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute grant #P50HL46487, NIH/NCRR 3 MO1 RR00042–33S3, NIH/NIA P60 AG08808–06, NHLBI 1 K24 HL04212, and 1 K23 HL68713.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91974/1/2003 AJRCCM - Fibroblastic Foci in Usual Interstitial Pneumonia -Idiopathic versus Collagen Vascular Disease.pd
An Unorthodox Introduction to QCD
These are lecture notes presented at the 2017 CTEQ Summer School at the
University of Pittsburgh and the 2018 CTEQ Summer School at the University of
Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. The title is a reference to hep-th/0309149 and
introduces perturbative QCD and its application to jet substructure from a
bottom-up perspective based on the approximation of QCD as a weakly-coupled,
conformal field theory. Using this approach, a simple derivation of the Sudakov
form factor with soft gluon emission modeled as a Poisson process is presented.
Topics of the identification and discrimination of quark- versus
gluon-initiated jets and jet grooming are also discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Comments welcome!, v2: updated to include both
lectures from the 2018 CTEQ schoo
Measurement of the B lifetime and production rate with D combinations in Z decays
The lifetime of the \bs meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different \ds decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic \bs decays. Two hundred and eight \dsl candidates satisfy selection criteria designed to ensure precise proper time reconstruction and yield a measured \bs lifetime of \mbox{\result .} Using a larger, less constrained sample of events, the product branching ratio is measured to be \mbox{\pbrresult
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