Serial ultrasonographic monitoring of diaphragmatic and mid-upper arm muscle thickness in mechanically ventilated respiratory patients: A single-center observational study.

Introduction: Muscle monitoring during mechanical ventilation (MV) is gaining great interest nowadays; however, a proper monitoring tool is not well-established yet.

Objectives: To assess the role of ultrasound in muscle monitoring during MV in respiratory patients.

Methods: Eligible 68 mechanically ventilated patients were consecutively enrolled.

Acute pulmonary thromboembolism in emergency room: gray-scale versus color doppler ultrasound evaluation.

Background: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) remains under-diagnosed fatal disease at emergency units suggesting the need for alternative, easy, and noninvasive bedside diagnostic approaches.

Objectives: To determine the diagnostic role of gray-scale and color Doppler transthoracic ultrasonography (TUS) in patients with PTE.

Patients And Methods: Blinded to 64 multi-detectors CT pulmonary angiography (MDCTPA) examination as a gold standard, 60 patients with clinically suspected PTE underwent gray-scale and then color Doppler TUS examination.

Diagnostic value of ex vivo pleural fluid interferon-gamma versus adapted whole-blood quantiferon-TB gold in tube assays in tuberculous pleural effusion.

Background: Noninvasive diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (TB) remains a challenge due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease. As Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific T cells are recruited into pleural space in TB effusion; their indirect detection may provide useful clinical information.

Objectives: Evaluation of pleural fluid interferon (INF)-γ levels vs Quantiferon-TB Gold In tube assay (QFT- IT) in blood and its adapted variants, using pleural fluid or isolated pleural fluid cells in the diagnosis of pleural TB.

Evaluation of recently validated non- invasive formula using basic lung functions as new screening tool for pulmonary hypertension in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.

Background: A prediction formula for mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) using standard lung function measurement has been recently validated to screen for pulmonary hypertension (PH) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients.

Objective: To test the usefulness of this formula as a new non invasive screening tool for PH in IPF patients. Also, to study its correlation with patients' clinical data, pulmonary function tests, arterial blood gases (ABGs) and other commonly used screening methods for PH including electrocardiogram (ECG), chest X ray (CXR), trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) and computerized tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA).