Airway Hyperresponsiveness, Inflammation, and Pulmonary Emphysema in Rodent Models Designed to Mimic Exposure to Fuel Oil-Derived Volatile Organic Compounds Encountered during an Experimental Oil Spill.

Background: Fuel oil-derived volatile organic compounds (VOCs) inhalation is associated with accidental marine spills. After the petroleum tanker sank off northern Spain in 2002 and the oil rig catastrophe in 2009, subjects involved in environmental decontamination showed signs of ongoing or residual lung disease up to 5 y after the exposure.

Objectives: We aimed at investigating mechanisms driving persistent respiratory disease by developing an animal model of inhalational exposure to fuel oil-derived VOCs.

Discordance of physician clinical judgment . pneumonia severity index (PSI) score to admit patients with low risk community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective multicenter study.

Background: The relationship between clinical judgment and the pneumonia severity index (PSI) score in deciding the site of care for patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has not been well investigated. The objective of the study was to determine the clinical factors that influence decision-making to hospitalize low-risk patients (PSI ≤2) with CAP.

Methods: An observational, prospective, multicenter study of consecutive CAP patients was performed at five hospitals in Spain.

Effects of a muscular training program on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with moderate or severe exacerbation antecedents.

Background: Muscular training is the corner stone of pulmonary rehabilitation programs.

Aim: To evaluate the effects of a muscular training program - carried out on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) subjects with antecedents of moderate or severe exacerbation - on exercise tolerance, Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and illness prognosis.

Design: A quasi-experimental study.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: impact of pulmonary follow-up and mechanical ventilation on survival. A study of 114 cases.

Objective: To study the impact of ventilatory management and treatment on the survival of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Method: Retrospective analysis of 114 consecutive patients admitted to a general hospital, evaluating demographic data, type of presentation, clinical management, treatment with mechanical ventilation and survival.

Statistics: descriptive and Kaplan-Meier estimator.

Diffuse interstitial lung disease as a first manifestation of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia: case report and review of the literature.

Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a lymphoid malignancy characterized by infiltration, mainly of the bone marrow and lymph nodes, by small mature lymphocytes showing plasmacytoid differentiation, associated with an IgM monoclonal band, and, in general, a low degree of aggressiveness. We present the first case reported in the Spanish literature of interstitial lung disease presenting as MW and we review the literature.

Community-acquired pneumonia team decreases length of stay in hospitalized, low-risk patients with pneumonia.

Background: Team-focused intervention to improve the care of low-risk patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a matter of controversy. Our aim was to determine if a community-acquired pneumonia team (CAPT) would shorten hospital length of stay (LOS) and improve health care utilization in low-risk patients with CAP compared with management by a general pulmonary team (GPT).

Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of hospitalized, low-risk patients with CAP (Pneumonia Severity Index [PSI] score class I or II) at a single tertiary hospital from June 2007 to June 2008.

Utility of brief questionnaires of health-related quality of life (Airways Questionnaire 20 and Clinical COPD Questionnaire) to predict exacerbations in patients with asthma and COPD.

Background: There is some evidence that quality of life measured by long disease-specific questionnaires may predict exacerbations in asthma and COPD, however brief quality of life tools, such as the Airways Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) or the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), have not yet been evaluated as predictors of hospital exacerbations.

Objectives: To determine the ability of brief specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires (AQ20 and CCQ) to predict emergency department visits (ED) and hospitalizations in patients with asthma and COPD, and to compare them to longer disease-specific questionnaires, such as the St George´s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ) and the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ).

Methods: We conducted a two-year prospective cohort study of 208 adult patients (108 asthma, 100 COPD).

Coordination between a district hospital and a reference hospital: evaluation of chest disease care models.

Specialised medical care at district hospitals has not been thoroughly defined. Respiratory care data from 2008 in Barbanza and Cee hospitals (Galicia, Spain), were analysed to evaluate different approaches, as they are both similar. Barbanza hospital has a chest diseases clinic run by specialist doctors from the reference hospital three days per week, while Cee hospital is operated by the staff on site.

Validation of a Spanish version of the Airways Questionnaire 20: a short and simple instrument.

Objective: To describe the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Airways Questionnaire 20 (AQ20S) for asthma and COPD separately.

Study Design: Two hundred and eight patients (108 asthma, 100 COPD) filled in the AQ20S, the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) and the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ).

The role of alexithymia in quality of life and health care use in asthma.

Background: Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties in perceiving and expressing emotions. The relationship between alexithymia and health outcomes in asthma has been shown in a scarce number of studies, in which alexithymia has been considered as an homogeneous construct and the confounding potential effect of anxiety and depression has not been controlled for.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between each of the three dimensions of alexithymia as assessed with the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale--Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, and Externally Oriented Thinking--and health-related quality of life and utilization of health care services, controlling anxiety and depression.

T Cells localize with proliferating smooth muscle alpha-actin+ cell compartments in asthma.

Rationale: Airway remodeling in asthma comprises increased airway smooth muscle (ASM), an alteration linked to airway hyperresponsiveness and disease severity. Experimental studies showed that T cells adhere to ASM through vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and drive ASM growth through direct contact between the T cells and smooth muscle alpha-actin (alpha-SMA)(+) cells.

Objectives: To support the hypothesis of a T-cell/alpha-SMA(+) cell contact mechanism of ASM remodeling in asthma, using bronchial biopsies.

[Unilateral painful diaphragm paralysis as the only sign of amyotrophic neuralgia].

Amyotrophic neuralgia is an inflammatory and idiopathic neuropathy which is characterised by neuropathic pain. It was described for the first time in 1948 as condition that only affected the brachial plexus and was called Parsonage-Turner syndrome. Although this syndrome is more common in the brachial plexus, it can concomitantly, or in isolation affect the phrenic nerve, and in this case the diagnosis is very difficult if there is no high clinical suspicion.

[Pulmonary Ewing sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor: a case report and a review of the literature].

Primary thoracic sarcomas are very rare. The most common intrathoracic variants are synovial sarcoma, angiosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and sarcomatoid mesothelioma. Although thoracic Ewing sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) usually develops on the chest wall, there have been reports of primary Ewing sarcoma/PNET of the lung.

[Cultural adaptation into Spanish of the Airways Questionnaire 20, a short health-related quality-of-life questionnaire for the clinical evaluation of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

Background And Objectives: The routine use of health-related quality-of-life questionnaires in patients with chronic respiratory disease is limited due to the time required to complete them. The Airways Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) contains 20 easy-to-answer questions, making it ideal for use in routine practice. However, a Spanish version is not available.

[The importance of genotyping of strains for the evaluation and interpretation of 5 school-based epidemic outbreaks of tuberculosis].

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe 5 microepidemics of tuberculosis occurring in schools, establish the risk factors associated with the outbreaks, assess how well a concentric circles strategy for contact tracing predicts infection, and assess the usefulness of genotyping strains in the analysis of the outbreaks.

Material And Methods: The study assessed 5 epidemic outbreaks of tuberculosis using a standard contact tracing procedure. The outbreaks occurred in 2 day nurseries and 2 high schools between 1998 and 2005.

[Clinical efficacy of sildenafil in patients with pulmonary hypertension in functional class II or III].

Objective: To assess the efficacy of treatment with sildenafil monotherapy in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Patients And Methods: An observational study was undertaken in 11 patients with pulmonary hypertension in functional class II or III who received treatment with sildenafil (150 mg/day). Seven of the patients had inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension and 4 had pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Relationship between delayed diagnosis and the degree of invasion and survival in lung cancer.

Background And Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the interval from first symptom to diagnosis (SDI) and the degree of invasion and survival in lung cancer.

Methods: Three hundred seventy-eight patients with lung cancer were included. SDI was defined as the time calculated from the cytohistologic confirmation of the diagnosis of cancer and the first symptoms noted by the patient and attributed to cancer by the physician.