Morbidity and mortality associated with gastrointestinal dysfunction in neuromuscular disease: a single-centre case series.

Gastrointestinal dysfunction in neuromuscular disease is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It is often underreported despite its prevalence in this cohort. There are a number of issues reported, with gastrointestinal dysmotility and intestinal pseudo-obstruction carrying a poor outcome.

Predictors of survival in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving long-term oxygen therapy.

Aim: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects 2-4% of the UK's population and has significant mortality, however prognostication is difficult. Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) has been identified by the Gold Standards Framework as a clinical indicator of advancing disease. We hypothesised the ADO index (for 'Age, Dyspnoea and airflow Obstruction'), which predicts mortality, could be applied to our LTOT population to help identify patients with poor prognosis.

The relationship between the components of pulmonary artery pressure remains constant under all conditions in both health and disease.

Background: The relationships among systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP), diastolic pulmonary artery pressure (DPAP), and mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) have been found to be constant in humans breathing air, at rest, while supine. It would be important for those studying the pulmonary circulation if this relationship were maintained under other circumstances, such as change in posture, during exercise, or after pharmacologic manipulation. In particular, it would be useful if the relationship were maintained when treating pulmonary hypertension because this would allow different methods of measurement to be compared, such as SPAP from echocardiography and MPAP from right heart catheterization.