Revascularization Strategies in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease and Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease.

Purpose Of Review: This paper assesses recent literature on the impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing revascularization. Specifically, to determine if there is an optimal revascularization strategy for this patient population, and if there are other modalities to assess the risks.

Recent Findings: There are limited new data in the last year addressing this clinical question.

Approach to the Patient with Cough.

Cough is a common presenting symptom for patients in a primary care setting. Chronic cough is defined as a cough lasting for more than 8 weeks. The most common causes of chronic cough are upper airway cough syndrome, asthma, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Faculty development in point of care ultrasound for internists.

Lack of general medicine faculty expertise is a likely contributor to the slow adoption of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) by internal medicine (IM) residency training programs. We developed a 10-week faculty development program, during which 15 faculty members participated in 2 hours and 10 hours of online didactic and hands-on training, respectively. Pre-post comparisons showed that there were statistically significant improvements in faculty participants' ability to interpret images (<0.

Circulating endothelial microparticles as a measure of early lung destruction in cigarette smokers.

Rationale: There is increasing evidence that emphysema is associated with primary loss of pulmonary capillary endothelium. Plasma levels of endothelial microparticles (EMPs), small vesicles released from activated or apoptotic endothelial cells, are elevated in vascular-related disorders.

Objectives: To evaluate whether plasma EMP levels are elevated in smokers with early lung destruction as assessed by normal spirometry but reduced diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (Dl(co)).

An anticonvulsant profile of the ketogenic diet in the rat.

The present study was designed to evaluate the anticonvulsant effects of a high-fat ketogenic diet (KD) in rats. Animals were maintained on one of four experimental diets: (1) calorie-restricted ketogenic (KCR); (2) calorie-restricted normal (NCR); (3) ad libitum ketogenic (KAL); or (4) ad libitum normal (NAL). The calorie-restricted diets were fed in quantities such that they were calorically equivalent.