Asthma: diagnosis and management.

The prevalence of asthma is increasing in the United States, with an estimated 9 to 12 million persons affected. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. Anti-inflammatory drugs constitute the mainstay of pharmacologic treatment.

Diffuse large cell lymphoma of the lung: an unusual cause of complete opacification of the hemithorax.

Complete opacification on chest radiographs may be due to collapse of the lung, consolidation, massive pleural effusion, empyema, hemothorax, chylothorax, fibrothorax, and other causes. We report a case of complete opacification of the hemithorax produced by large cell lymphoma, a previously unreported cause of this finding. Diagnosis was complicated by the CT finding of replacement of the lung parenchyma by a soft-tissue mass with an associated small pleural effusion, while bronchoscopy failed to reveal any major airway obstruction.

Contemporary management of chronic persistent cough.

A chronic persistent cough is one that lasts longer than eight weeks in a patient without known chronic pulmonary disease. These patients may experience prolonged frustration, guilt and self-imposed social isolation, besides risking the medical and surgical complications of recurrent coughing episodes, if the cause of their cough is not quickly established and treated. A comprehensive discussion of the management approach to this problem with reference to the recent literature is presented.