Genetic determinants of risk in pulmonary arterial hypertension: international genome-wide association studies and meta-analysis.

Background: Rare genetic variants cause pulmonary arterial hypertension, but the contribution of common genetic variation to disease risk and natural history is poorly characterised. We tested for genome-wide association for pulmonary arterial hypertension in large international cohorts and assessed the contribution of associated regions to outcomes.

Methods: We did two separate genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and a meta-analysis of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Acute cardiorenal syndrome: Mechanisms and clinical implications.

Cardiac and renal dysfunction often coexist, and one begets the other. The association is referred to as cardiorenal syndrome. One subtype, acute cardiorenal syndrome, is often described as a clinical scenario in which acute worsening of cardiac function leads to acute kidney injury.

Exercise training in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: a case report.

Purpose: To describe the benefits of a feasible, outpatient exercise training program on exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Methods: Case report on two subjects recruited from a tertiary care pulmonary hypertension clinic. Subject 1 was a 50-year-old male with idiopathic PAH.

Idiopathic interstitial pneumonia: do community and academic physicians agree on diagnosis?

Rationale: Treatment and prognoses of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLDs) varies by diagnosis. Obtaining a uniform diagnosis among observers is difficult.

Objectives: Evaluate diagnostic agreement between academic and community-based physicians for patients with DPLDs, and determine if an interactive approach between clinicians, radiologists, and pathologists improved diagnostic agreement in community and academic centers.

Anal cancer in Alaska; a retrospective study of incidence, treatment, and outcomes.

Anal cancer is a rare tumor usually of squamous histology that is managed most often with concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Surgery is commonly reserved for those who fail primary treatment. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the medical records of patients with anal cancer seen in two radiation therapy centers in Alaska from the period of 1996 to mid-2001.