Continuous Intravenous Morphine Infusion for Severe Dyspnea in Terminally Ill Interstitial Pneumonia Patients.

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficacy and safety of continuous morphine infusion for dyspnea in patients with acute exacerbation (AE) of end-stage interstitial pneumonia (IP).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study. Based on the subjective clinical effectiveness ratings of "good," "moderate," "poor," or "unknown," the efficacy of continuous morphine infusion treatment was evaluated as defined as symptom relief that was "good" or "moderate.

Marked Improvement with Pirfenidone in a Patient with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

A man in his mid-60's with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and hepatitis B-related liver cirrhosis developed exertional dyspnea and a dry cough lasting for three months. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) showed increasing bilateral ground-glass opacity superimposed on the usual interstitial pneumonia pattern. Six months after starting pirfenidone therapy, the partial pressure of arterial oxygen at rest increased from 81 to 101 torr, the predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) value increased from 75% to 94% and the ground-glass opacity on HRCT improved.

Long-term interferon monotherapy reduces the risk of HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of long-term interferon (IFN) monotherapy on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients who showed no virological response to the first course of IFN therapy, define predictive factors for HCC in patients on long-term IFN monotherapy, and evaluate the clinical impact of amino acid (aa) substitutions in the hepatitis C virus (HCV)-1b core region on HCC rate. This retrospective study included 494 consecutive treatment-naive patients infected with HCV-1b who failed to achieve sustained virological response after ≥24-week IFN monotherapy. Of 494 patients, 113 (22.