Invasive modalities for the diagnosis of peripheral lung nodules.

Introduction: Lung nodules are being increasingly discovered either incidentally or through lung cancer screening chest CT scans. Some of these will turn out to be malignant and therefore it is important to obtain an accurate and timely diagnosis of lung cancer when suspected.

Areas Covered: This review will cover various invasive diagnostic modalities available to sample lung nodules.

Primary Progressive Aphasia: Toward a Pathophysiological Synthesis.

Purpose Of Review: The term primary progressive aphasia (PPA) refers to a diverse group of dementias that present with prominent and early problems with speech and language. They present considerable challenges to clinicians and researchers.

Recent Findings: Here, we review critical issues around diagnosis of the three major PPA variants (semantic variant PPA, nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA, logopenic variant PPA), as well as considering 'fragmentary' syndromes.

Pulmonary T-cell lymphoma masquerading as eosinophilic pneumonitis.

Primary pulmonary T-cell lymphoma is an unusual subtype of peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS). This is a general term used to describe a diverse group of T-cell-type lymphomas that would otherwise not be classified as a PTCL. Among non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, PTCL accounts for 12% of cases.

Fluency can bias masked priming of binary judgments: evidence from an all-nonword task.

Using a novel all-nonword task ("Does the target have more vowels than consonants?"), new evidence is provided showing that processing fluency can bias masked priming of binary judgments. Two experiments revealed masked repetition priming for "yes" nonwords (e.g.

Engineering a thermoregulated intein-modified xylanase into maize for consolidated lignocellulosic biomass processing.

Plant cellulosic biomass is an abundant, low-cost feedstock for producing biofuels and chemicals. Expressing cell wall-degrading (CWD) enzymes (e.g.

Richer concepts are better remembered: number of features effects in free recall.

Many models of memory build in a term for encoding variability, the observation that there can be variability in the richness or extensiveness of processing at encoding, and that this variability has consequences for retrieval. In four experiments, we tested the expectation that encoding variability could be driven by the properties of the to-be-remembered item. Specifically, that concepts associated with more semantic features would be better remembered than concepts associated with fewer semantic features.

Repetition proportion affects masked priming in nonspeeded tasks.

Masked repetition priming is often greater when a larger proportion of trials involve repetition primes, suggesting that a context-sensitive unconscious process may be operating. Two recent studies have failed to obtain an effect of prime proportion in the perceptual identification (PI) task, suggesting that the effect may not occur in nonspeeded tasks. Contrary to this possibility, we report proportion effects with masked repetition primes in two nonspeeded tasks: PI and fragment completion (FC).

Aerosol delivery of recombinant human DNase I: in vitro comparison of a vibrating-mesh nebulizer with a jet nebulizer.

Background: Inhaled recombinant human DNase I (rhDNase) improves clearance of visco-elastic secretions in patients with cystic fibrosis. Because of their portability, newer-generation vibrating-mesh nebulizers offer greater convenience for the patient, but their efficiency in delivering rhDNase has not been determined.

Methods: We compared a newer-generation vibrating-mesh nebulizer (Omron MicroAir) to a Pari LC+ with the Pari ProNeb Ultra compressor (a commonly employed rhDNase administration system).

Obstructive sleep apnea: A practical review.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a condition of repetitive stoppage of breathing during sleep. OSA has assumed major clinical importance as it is linked with the pathophysiology of many serious medical conditions such as congestive heart failure and stroke. We shall review the history, epidemiology, clinical presentation, evaluation, and management of sleep apnea.

Care of the chronic tracheostomy.

A minority of patients with neuromuscular disease require placement of a tracheostomy, usually for the purpose of providing mechanical ventilation. Often the tracheostomy is performed during a hospital admission for an acute illness. The debate about the appropriate timing of tracheostomy in critically ill patients has not been resolved; however, the weight of evidence now favors performing a tracheostomy early (within 7 d of translaryngeal intubation) if the period of mechanical ventilation is likely to be prolonged beyond 3 weeks.

Is PET useful in detecting occult nonpulmonary metastases in pediatric bone sarcomas?

Unlabelled: Orthopaedic oncologists are increasingly utilizing positron emission tomography (PET) technology in the initial workup and staging of sarcomas and for monitoring treatment response. We evaluated the use of PET with fluorine-18-fluoro-2-deoxy D-glucose (FDG) to detect occult nonpulmonary metastases in patients < age 30 newly diagnosed with either Ewing's or osteosarcoma, and the impact of this information upon therapeutic decision making. We retrospectively reviewed prospectively collected data (1994-2004) on 55 patients age < 30 years old over a 10 year span.

Bone marrow sampling in pathologic fractures: intramedullary pediatric chest tube technique.

The objective of this article is to report upon a simple technique of bone marrow specimen collection of intramedullary bone tumors using a pediatric chest tube. This technique is described along with two case reports which include a 60-year-old female with metastatic breast cancer to the proximal femur, and a 63-year-old male with multiple myeloma of the proximal humerus. Utilizing this technique, in our experience, over 50 mL of aspirate can be obtained and definitive histologic material for cytogenetic diagnosis and immunohistochemistry.