Unilateral re-expansion pulmonary edema following treatment of pneumothorax with exceptionally massive sputum production, followed by circulatory collapse.

A case of a 61-year-old man who developed ipsilateral re-expansion pulmonary edema after pleural drainage for a right pneumothorax is described. The patient's chest x-ray revealed a totally collapsed right lung. After insertion of a chest drainage tube, he began to produce a moderate amount of serous, yellowish sputum.

Endotracheal tube ignition during the intratracheal laser treatment.

We experienced the combustion of the endotracheal tube during a bronchoscopic potassium titanyl phosphate laser resection of an intratracheal metastatic tumor. Some preventive precautions have been reported, however, none of them are absolutely perfect. We report the rare occurrence of tracheal tube ignition, preventive measures and treatment strategies for the resultant airway burn.

Comparison of salmeterol/fluticasone propionate (FP) combination with FP+sustained release theophylline in moderate asthma patients.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy and safety of the salmeterol/fluticasone propionate combination product with concurrent sustained release theophylline plus fluticasone propionate in adult Japanese patients with persistent asthma.

Design: Multicentre, randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group study.

Patients And Interventions: Three hundred and eighty-three asthmatic patients receiving sustained release theophylline 200-400mg/day entered the study and were randomised to receive either salmeterol/fluticasone propionate combination (SFC) 50microg/250microg+1 placebo tablet, fluticasone propionate 250microg+1 sustained release theophylline 200mg (SR-T+FP), twice daily for 8 weeks.

[Legionella longbeachae pneumonia infection from home garden soil].

A 72-year-old critically ill and intubated man was transferred to our hospital, because of worsening pneumonia unresponsive to Cefazolin and Meropenem, from the hospital where he had been admitted 8 days before to start maintenance hemodialysis for chronic renal failure but had fever from admission. In a few days his critical condition rapidly subsided with the initiation of Ciprofloxacin and his sputum culture on GVPC medium indicated Legionellosis, which was afterwards identified as L. longbeachae by PCR and DNA-DNA hybridization.

[Azygos vein aneurysm occurring simultaneously with hemoptysis].

A 64-year-old man was admitted with hemoptysis. A chest X-ray showed a well-defined round nodule at the right tracheobronchial angle. Enhanced computed tomography revealed the superior vena cava to be completely occluded while the azygos vein was also observed to have formed an aneurysm.

[Characteristics of asthma patients who need repeated hospitalization; frequency of use of systemic corticosteroids, emergency and unscheduled hospital visits and habitual use of sleeping pills].

Background: This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of frequently hospitalized patients.

Methods: The clinical characteristics of 310 cases having hospitalization episodes (206 patients) for asthma attack analyzed retrospectively based on their clinical records.

Results: Nineteen out of the 206 patients were hospitalized more than just three times during the study period.

Clinicopathological features of chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Objective: Only limited information exists concerning the clinical and pathological features of chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) in Japan and elsewhere. We present data on clinicopathological features of chronic HP obtained through a Japanese nationwide survey.

Methodology: We studied the clinical and pathological findings in 10 patients with chronic HP who underwent surgical lung biopsy or postmortem examination.