Fibromyalgia's main features, widespread pain, and insomnia in the paintings of Remedios Varo.

The sensitivity of plastic artists to human suffering has been expressed in different ways. This article recounts the circumstances that led the Spanish-Mexican surrealist painter, Remedios Varo, to depict in an original way the two cardinal manifestations of fibromyalgia; widespread pain and insomnia.

The value of inquiring patients about local discomfort during blood pressure measurement for fibromyalgia detection. A cross-sectional study.

Background: Fibromyalgia overlaps and/or mimics other rheumatic diseases and may be a confounding factor in the clinimetric assessment of these illnesses. Allodynia is a distinctive fibromyalgia feature that can be elicited during routine blood pressure measurement. For epidemiological purposes fibromyalgia can be diagnosed using the 2016 Wolfe et al.

Effects of Supplemental Oxygen on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Interactions by Extended Partial Directed Coherence in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and restrictive disease characterized by fibrosis and inflammatory changes in lung tissue producing a reduction in diffusion capacity and leading to exertional chronic arterial hypoxemia and dyspnea. Furthermore, clinically, supplemental oxygen (SupplO) has been prescribed to IPF patients to improve symptoms. However, the evidence about the benefits or disadvantages of oxygen supplementation is not conclusive.

Cardiovascular and Respiratory Interactions in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis by Extended Partial Directed Coherence: Short-term Effects of Supplemental Oxygen.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease that can lead to chronic arterial hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and dyspnea. To improve clinical symptoms in IPF patients, supplemental oxygen (SupplO) has been prescribed with the aim to maintain SpO level, and consequently to relieve dyspnea, increase physical activity and improve quality of life. In this study, we investigated the effect of disease and short-term SupplO on cardiovascular and respiratory autonomic regulation.

[Overview of the interstitial lung disease in the Southeast of Mexico].

Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) corresponds to a heterogeneous group of pathologies that differ in etiology with common clinical and radiological manifestations. In Latin America and Mexico, reports are scarce and the need for studies to understand the scenario is emphasized.

Objective: To analyze a multidimensional profile in patients with interstitial lung disease in Yucatan.

Hemodynamic response to low-flow acute supplemental oxygen in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and elderly healthy subjects.

Background: Hemodynamic response to supplemental oxygen in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is still not well known.

Objective: To determine and compare the effect of low-flow acute supplemental oxygen on the hemodynamics of IPF patients and matched healthy subjects.

Methods: Descriptive and comparative study in 20 IPF-patients and 19 Control-subjects, (60-80 years old) breathing ambient air followed by acute nasal low-flow (3 L/min) supplemental oxygen.

An Open-label Study With Pirfenidone on Chronic Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis.

Background: Chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (cHP) represents a severe lung disease often evolving to fibrosis with the subsequent destruction of the lung parenchyma. There are no approved therapies with confirmed efficacy to deal with this disease.

Methods: We performed an open-label, proof of concept study, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pirfenidone added to immunosuppressive drugs on the treatment of cHP.

Detection of Respiratory Crackle Sounds via an Android Smartphone-based System.

Pulmonary auscultation with traditional stethoscope, although useful, has limitations for detecting discontinuous adventitious respiratory sounds (crackles) that commonly occur in respiratory diseases. In this work, we present the development of a mobile health system for the automated detection of crackle sounds, comprised by an acoustical sensor, a smart phone device, and a mobile application (app) implemented in Android. The app allows the physician to record, store, reproduce, and analyze respiratory sounds directly on the smart phone.

A multichannel acoustic approach to define a pulmonary pathology as combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema syndrome.

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) have been increasing their relevance in loss of lives according to a recent world wide medical information. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema syndrome (CPFES) belong to ILD class with the latter having a limited survival prognosis. In clinical environment high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is used to detect CPFE; however, there is still controversy about the amount of emphysema observed in HRCT to declare CPFES.

Small airway dysfunction in chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Background And Objective: Lung biopsies from patients with hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) have demonstrated small airway (SA) involvement, but there is no information concerning SA function in HP, and it is unknown whether pharmacological treatment could modify its function. SA function in patients with chronic HP using ultrasonic pneumography (UPG) and impulse oscillometry (IOS) was explored. We also compared initial results with those obtained after 4 weeks of standardized treatment with azathioprine and prednisone.

Acoustic evaluation of pirfenidone on patients with combined pulmonary fibrosis emphysema syndrome.

The combined pulmonary fibrosis emphysema syndrome (CPFES) overall has a poor prognosis with a 5-year survival of 35-80%. Consequently, to evaluate possible positive effects on patients of novel agents as pirfenidone is relevant. However, the efficacy of pirfenidone in CPFES patients is still not well-known.

Automated clustering of independent components for discontinuous sounds thoracic imaging.

Discontinuous lung sounds (DLS), also known as crackles, are abnormal sounds produced by different pulmonary pathologies (PP) whose thoracic spatial distribution and prevalence are relevant for diagnosis purpose. Recently, DLS imaging has been proposed to help diagnose and follow-up PP where automated recognition of DLS is meaningful. The present study focuses on the automated selection of independent components (ICs) associated with DLS.

Sarcoidosis: a single hospital-based study in a 24-year period.

Background: Clinical presentation of sarcoidosis varies according to race and geographical area. We describe the clinical spectrum and outcome of sarcoidosis in Mexican patients compared with other populations.

Methods: We reviewed the medical charts of 21 patients with sarcoidosis seen at a referral hospital in 1989-2012; organ involvement was assessed using the ACCESS instrument.

Adventitious lung sounds imaging by ICA-TVAR scheme.

Adventitious lung sounds (ALS) as crackles and wheezes are present in different lung alterations and their automated characterization and recognition have become relevant. In fact, recently their 2D spatial distribution (SD) imaging has been proposed to help diagnose of pulmonary diseases. In this work, independent component analysis (ICA) by infomax was used to find crackles sources and from them to apply a time variant autoregressive model (TVAR) to count and imaging the ALS.

Linear and nonlinear analysis of base lung sound in extrinsic allergic alveolitis patients in comparison to healthy subjects.

Objective: Pulmonary disorders are frequently characterized by the presence of adventitious sounds added to the breathing or base lung sound (BLS). The aim of this work was to assess the features of BLS in extrinsic allergic alveolitis (EAA) patients in comparison to healthy subjects, applying linear and nonlinear analysis techniques.

Methods: We investigated the multichannel lung sounds on the posterior chest of 16 females, 8 healthy and 8 EAA patients, when breathing at 1.