Patterns and characteristics of TB among key risk groups in Canada, 1993-2018.

Canada has a low incidence of TB, although certain groups are disproportionately affected. To describe and compare the epidemiology, trends and characteristics of TB in Quebec, Canada, among all patients reported during 1993-2018. Demographics and risk factors were compared for the three groups accounting for most TB diagnoses reported in Quebec (foreign-born, Canadian-born non-Indigenous and Inuit).

Comparison of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who did and did not live in residential care facilities in Montréal: a retrospective case series.

Background: As in other jurisdictions, the demographics of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 changed in Quebec over the course of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave, and affected those living in residential care facilities (RCFs) disproportionately. We evaluated the association between clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, comparing those did or did not live in RCFs.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series of all consecutive adults (≥ 18 yr) admitted to the Jewish General Hospital in Montréal with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from Mar.

Disseminated Multi-system Sarcoidosis Mimicking Metastases on F-FDG PET/CT.

A 60-year-old female with no significant medical history presented with hematuria. A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed extensive lymphadenopathy with hypodensities in the liver and spleen, and she was referred for an F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) positron emission tomography/CT (PET/CT) study to assess for malignancy of unknown primary. PET/CT revealed extensive F-FDG avid lymphadenopathy as well as innumerable intensely F-FDG avid lung, liver and splenic nodules, highly concerning for malignancy.

Implementation of a targeted screening program to detect airflow obstruction suggestive of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease within a presurgical screening clinic.

Background: Targeted spirometry screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been studied in primary care and community settings. Limitations regarding availability and quality of testing remain. A targeted spirometry screening program was implemented within a presurgical screening (PSS) clinic to detect undiagnosed airways disease and identify patients with COPD/asthma in need of treatment optimization.

Integrated interdisciplinary care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reduces emergency department visits, admissions and costs: a quality assurance study.

Background: Dedicated programs for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can reduce hospitalizations and improve quality of life.

Objective: To investigate whether health care utilization could be reduced by a newly developed integrated, interdisciplinary initiative that included a COPD nurse navigator who educates patients and families, transitions patients through various points of care and integrates services.

Methods: The present quality assurance, pre-post study included patients followed by a COPD nurse navigator from January 25, 2010 to November 5, 2011.

Long-term compliance with continuous positive airway pressure in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, compliance is a significant problem and has been incompletely assessed in long-term studies.

Objective: To assess the long-term compliance of OSA patients with CPAP therapy.

Systematic review of motor vehicle crash risk in persons with sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: To determine whether drivers with sleep apnea are at increased risk of motor vehicle crash; whether disease severity, daytime sleepiness, or both disease severity and daytime sleepiness affect this risk, and whether treatment of sleep apnea reduces crash risk.

Design: Systematic review of published literature.

Setting: N/A.

Clinical reproducibility of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

Study Objectives: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is widely used as a subjective measure of sleepiness. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated its reproducibility in the clinical setting.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients referred to the sleep clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital for evaluation of sleep-disordered breathing from a local private snoring clinic between January 2000 and October 2001 was carried out.

Sleep and aging: 2. Management of sleep disorders in older people.

The treatment of sleep-related illness in older patients must be undertaken with an appreciation of the physiologic changes associated with aging. Insomnia is common among older people. When it occurs secondary to another medical condition, treatment of the underlying disorder is imperative.

Sleep and aging: 1. Sleep disorders commonly found in older people.

Aging is associated with several well-described changes in patterns of sleep. Typically, there is a phase advance in the normal circadian sleep cycle: older people tend to go to sleep earlier in the evening but also to wake earlier. They may also wake more frequently during the night and experience fragmented sleep.

Prevalence of persistent sleep apnea in patients treated with continuous positive airway pressure.

Study Objective: There are limited data on the prevalence of persistent obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients who are clinically asymptomatic with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Our objectives were to estimate the prevalence of persistent OSA and to explore the parameters that may be capable of discriminating these patients.

Design: Prospective survey.

Sequential therapy with Vinorelbine followed by Gemcitabine in patients with metastatic non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), performance status (PS) 2, or elderly with comorbidities--a multicenter phase II trial.

Background: High risk patients with metastatic non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) including patients with performance status (PS) 2 or elderly with comorbidities do poorly on combination chemotherapy regimens. We evaluated a sequential treatment with Vinorelbine followed by Gemcitabine to determine its effect on survival and the toxicity in this patient population.

Methods: Forty-two evaluable patients, median age 75, 21 patients with PS 2 and 21 patients with PS 0 or 1, 37 patients with stage IV and five patients with stage III B NSCLC entered the trial.

Investigation of the risk factors for tuberculosis: a case-control study in three countries in West Africa.

Background: Host-related and environment-related factors have been shown to play a role in the development of tuberculosis (TB), but few studies were carried out to identify their respective roles in resource-poor countries.

Methods: A multicentre case-control study was conducted in Guinée, Guinea Bissau, and The Gambia, from January 1999 to March 2001. Cases were newly detected smear positive TB patients.

Yield of casual contact investigation by the hour.

Objective: Among casual contacts of tuberculosis (TB) patients, to assess how duration of contact, prior mycobacterial exposure, and performance of one or two tuberculin skin tests (TST), affect the likelihood that a positive TST represents conversion.

Methods: Published estimates of mycobacterial prevalence and BCG coverage, and their effect on single or repeated TSTs, were used to calculate baseline prevalence of TST reactions in four populations commonly encountered in North American contact investigations. Using published estimates of hourly risk of TB infection, the probability that a positive TST represented conversion was calculated.

Disseminated tuberculosis with and without a miliary pattern on chest radiograph: a clinical-pathologic-radiologic correlation.

Setting: Province of Manitoba, Canada.

Objective: To describe the characteristics of disseminated tuberculosis (TBD) with and without a miliary pattern on chest radiograph, to determine the mortality, and to identify the demographic and clinical features associated with survival.

Design: A retrospective case review.

The effects of posture change and continuous positive airway pressure on cardiac natriuretic peptides in congestive heart failure.

We studied changes in the peripheral plasma levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in seven patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) during four 1-h protocols during which patients maintained either an upright or a supine posture with or without nasal continuous positive airway pressure therapy (N-CPAP) at a pressure of 10 cm H2O (FIO2 = 0.21). The mean plasma ANP concentration of patients increased significantly from baseline at the end of 1 h of recumbency (65.

Disseminated infection after intravesical BCG immunotherapy. Detection of organisms in pulmonary tissue.

A 57-year-old man undergoing intravesical immunotherapy with BCG for transitional cell bladder carcinoma presented with dyspnea, fever, hypoxemia, and a diffuse micronodular pattern on chest radiograph. Transbronchial biopsy specimen revealed widespread noncaseating granulomas, and acid-fast bacilli were identified in sputum as well as in the biopsy tissue. The patient's condition responded promptly to antituberculous antibiotics given in conjunction with corticosteroids.

The prevalence of gallstone disease in very old institutionalized persons.

We present the results of a study that was undertaken at a large geriatric nursing home to assess the prevalence of gallstone disease in very old institutionalized persons. One hundred seventeen residents underwent ultrasound examination of the gallbladder. Two thirds of 82 women and half of 35 men had gallstone disease.