Pre-Operative Ability of Clinical Scores to Predict Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Severity in Susceptible Surgical Patients.

Background: Severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for perioperative complications. Clinical scores such as Snoring, Tiredness, Observed apnea, high blood Pressure, Body Mass Index (BMI) higher than 35 kg m, Age older than 50 years, Neck circumference larger than 40 cm, and male gender (STOP-Bang), perioperative sleep apnea prediction (P-SAP), and OSA50 have been proposed for detecting OSA. We recently proposed a new score based on morphological metrics only, the DES-OSA score.

Bronchial lipoma : an unusual cause of pleural empyema.

We report a case of rapidly growing pleural empyema due to endobronchial lipoma. The diagnosis was established by chest computed tomography (CT). Endobronchial lipoma is a rare benign tumor of the tracheobronchial tree which can cause irreversible damage to the distal lung parenchyma if diagnosis and treatment are not carried out in time.

Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia after radiation therapy for breast cancer.

The priming of bronchiolitis obliterans organising pneumonia by radiation therapy (RT) to the breast is now a well recognised syndrome. This study describes the occurrence of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia following RT after surgery for breast cancer in five female patients, with a mean age of 68 yrs (range 49-77). All patients had a history of asthma and/or allergy.