Care delivery pathways for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in England and the Netherlands: a comparative study.

Introduction: A remarkable difference in care delivery pathways for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the presence of hospital-at-home for COPD exacerbations in England and its absence in the Netherlands. The objective of this paper is to explain this difference.

Methods: Descriptive COPD statistics and care delivery pathways on all care levels within the institutional context, followed by a comparison of care delivery pathways and an explanation of the difference with regard to hospital-at-home.

Expression of priming-associated cellular markers on neutrophils during an exacerbation of COPD.

Chronic inflammation of the airways is a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We investigated the kinetics of priming of inflammatory cells in peripheral blood during exacerbations of COPD and during the resolution phase. Modulation of the leukocyte compartment as a consequence of systemic activation by cytokines/chemokines was determined by measuring the expression of priming-associated epitopes by novel antibodies designated A17 and A27.

Distribution of talc suspension during treatment of malignant pleural effusion with talc pleurodesis.

Talc pleurodesis is an effective technique for the management of symptomatic malignant pleural effusions. It is assumed that a good dispersion of talc suspension contributes to the final success of this treatment. For this purpose, guidelines often advise to rotate the patient after intra-pleural instillation of the sclerosant.