Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2008

Daytime fatigue and sleepiness caused by inspiratory flow limitation throughout NREM sleep (with associated arousals), in the absence of the clinical and polysomnographic features of obstructive sleep apnea hypoapnea syndrome (OSA/HS) has been described as the upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) [1]. Some authors had tried to assign uniqueness to this relatively “young” syndrome, including polysomno Read More

Respiratory drug particles aerosolized from Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) may charge electrostatically. Influence of electrostatic charge and aerodynamic size distributions on the regional deposition of inhaled aerosols in the lung has been acknowledged by the investigators of aerosol medicine research. This in vitro investigation reports a novel method of simultaneous measurement of both electrostatic charge and ae Read More

In asthma, bronchial mucosal tissues are chronically infiltrated by activated inflammatory cells (mainly lymphocytes and eosinophils) that have the capacity to produce a wide range of cytokines (IL-4, IL-5) and mediators (leucotrienes, prostaglandins, etc.). These molecules may significantly change the functional and phenotypic behavior of resident cells (epithelial cells, fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, etc.) In addition to thei Read More

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has been employed clinically for the therapy of a wide variety of acquired neoplastic and nonmalignant disorders. However, these immunocompromised patients remain at high risk of developing many serious and often life threatening complications. Occurring in up to 70% of allogeneic HSCT patients, respiratory complications are a leading cause of morbidity and mort Read More

Chronic respiratory diseases are one of the leading causes of death and morbidity. Therefore the assessment of regional and global ventilation distribution together with pulmonary perfusion imaging becomes more and more important. To date either radionuclide ventilation scintigraphy or high-resolution computed tomography (HR-CT) are used for ventilation assessment and pulmonary parenchyma analysis. But scintigrap Read More

Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) was initially used to describe a group of patients who were sleepy but did not meet the diagnostic criteria of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Since the original description, controversy and ambiguity of this disorder have lead to limited amounts of adequate data and studies. The incidence, prevalence, natural history, and morbidity of this disorder are not well known, an Read More

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important pathogen affecting all age groups and has been implicated in the inception of asthma in a subpopulation of children. Despite considerable research, the mechanisms of acute RSV bronchiolitis and post-bronchiolitis wheezing/ asthma are poorly understood and this has hampered efforts for defining risk stratification of patients and development of improved regimens in th Read More

Despite efforts to quell the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance, national trends show disturbing increases in the rate of resistance of clinically relevant microorganisms. The primary basis for this trend is inappropriate or insufficient antimicrobial treatment, which is often due to a lack of rapid diagnostic tools and dependence on time-consuming culturebased approaches for pathogen detection and resistance profiling. Mi Read More

Lung transplantation provides a successful therapy for end-stage lung disease. However, problems such as acute and chronic lung allograft rejection, the latter also known as bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), remain obstacles to achieving better long term outcomes. Novel biomarkers identified in peripheral blood, bronchoalveolar lavage, and lung allograft airway and parenchymal tissue are forwarding prog Read More

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) ranges from incidental, clinically unimportant thromboembolism to massive embolism with sudden death. Its treatment is well established in two groups of patients: heparin for those with normal systemic blood pressure without right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) and thrombolysis for those with RVD and circulatory shock. In an intermediate group of patients with systemic blood pressure stab Read More

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a global health problem. COPD is associated with the progressive pulmonary inflammation and destruction of lung parenchyma (emphysema) that relate to disease severity. Therefore, it is anticipated that drugs that reduce pulmonary inflammation will provide effective, disease modifying therapy for COPD. Several specific therapies are directed against the influx of infl Read More

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used for severe neonatal and pediatric respiratory failure that fails to respond to maximal therapy, including but not limited to high frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), surfactant replacement, inhaled nitric oxide (NO) and prone positioning of the patient. This report reviews our decade of experience with ECMO and describes various factors that affect the outcom Read More