Publications by authors named "Rakesh Panchal"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study examined the differences in causes of undiagnosed pleural effusions between outpatient and inpatient settings, involving 1,080 adult patients from four UK hospitals.
  • - Results showed that malignant effusions were more frequent in outpatients (48.3%) while infections were more common in inpatients (36.2%), indicating significant differences based on patient status.
  • - The findings suggest that diagnostic approaches should be tailored based on whether patients are admitted to the hospital or seen as outpatients.
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Article Synopsis
  • Study Objective
  • : The research evaluated the effectiveness of facemask sampling (FMS) to detect SARS-CoV-2 in vaccinated individuals during a mock PACES examination in Leicester, UK.
  • Methodology and Results
  • : Thirty-four participants wore modified facemasks capable of capturing exhaled virus and provided upper respiratory tract samples. Only one participant tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via URTS, but not through FMS, indicating no transmission to others.
  • Participant Feedback
  • : Most participants found FMS acceptable, but 69% believed that a positive FMS result alone was not enough for a definitive diagnosis. The study suggests that FMS is a viable method for identifying infectious individuals
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Article Synopsis
  • Pleural effusions (PEs) significantly affect patient health, but guidelines for non-malignant PEs (NMPEs) are lacking; this review focuses on cardiac-related PEs, such as those caused by congestive heart failure (CHF), pericarditis, and post-cardiac injury syndrome (PCIS).* -
  • The review highlights the challenges in accurately classifying PEs using Light's criteria and emphasizes the usefulness of the serum-pleural albumin gradient and elevated NT-proBNP levels for diagnosing CHF-related PEs.* -
  • It suggests that if medical treatments fail, therapeutic interventions like thoracentesis and indwelling pleural catheters may be required, while also
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Assessing the early use of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or intrapleural enzyme therapy (IET) in pleural infection requires a phase III randomized controlled trial (RCT). To establish the feasibility of randomization in a surgery-versus-nonsurgery trial as well as the key outcome measures that are important to identify relevant patient-centered outcomes in a subsequent RCT. The MIST-3 (third Multicenter Intrapleural Sepsis Trial) was a prospective multicenter RCT involving eight U.

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Background: Intercostal nerve block (ICNB) has long been used in thoracic surgery. Local anesthetic thoracoscopy (LAT) is performed under conscious sedation with local anesthesia at the port insertion site. This alone, however, does not anesthetize the parietal pleura from where biopsies are taken and patients can experience pain.

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The incidence of pleural disease is increasing, and interventions are crucial in this subspecialist area of respiratory medicine. One of the cornerstones of pleural effusion investigation and management is medical, which is also known as local anaesthetic thoracoscopy. This allows fluid drainage, biopsy for diagnosis and preventative measures for further fluid potential build-up.

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Background: Local anesthetic thoracoscopy (LAT) is important in the diagnosis of unilateral pleural effusions. Indwelling pleural catheters (IPC) can be inserted during LAT if a nonexpandable lung is suspected. Subcutaneous emphysema (SCE) is a known complication and is associated with increased morbidity and length of stay.

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Background: Chest drain displacement is a common clinical problem that occurs in 9-42% of cases and results in treatment failure or additional pleural procedures conferring unnecessary risk. A novel chest drain with an integrated intrapleural balloon may reduce the risk of displacement.

Methods: A prospective randomised controlled trial comparing the balloon drain to standard care (12 F chest drain with no balloon) with the primary outcome of objectively defined unintentional or accidental chest drain displacement.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for management of pleural diseases. As resources and staff have been redirected to manage acutely unwell COVID-19 patients, routine medical practice and service provision for pleural diseases have been severely disrupted. We recognised the impact this had for patients with pleural diseases, who can be highly vulnerable to infection and often have conditions for which treatment cannot be safely delayed.

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Over 50 systemic conditions may affect the pleura and, thus, unilateral pleural effusions may present for a variety of reasons. Investigating the cause is essential to providing appropriate management. Various pleural interventions are available in current practice, but have varying diagnostic sensitivity.

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A 75-year-old man with a history of epithelioid mesothelioma and a right-sided indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) presented with a history of a purulent fluid drainage via the IPC. The pleural fluid cultured and He was treated with a course of oral fluoroquinolone followed by uneventful IPC replacement. One and half hours postprocedure, the patient had a witnessed drop in conscious level accompanied by seizure like activity.

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In the current scenario, considerable attention is being given to the enzyme L-glutaminase (EC 3.5.1.

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Introduction: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is difficult to diagnose. An accurate blood biomarker could prompt specialist referral or be deployed in future screening. In earlier retrospective studies, SOMAscan proteomics (Somalogic, Boulder, CO) and fibulin-3 seemed highly accurate, but SOMAscan has not been validated prospectively and subsequent fibulin-3 data have been contradictory.

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We present a case of a 33-year-old man with a background of HIV and Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), who presented with a right sided chylothorax. He was managed with percutaneous chest drainage and talc pleurodesis, in addition to his chemotherapy and antiretroviral therapy for KS and HIV, respectively. Good clinical control of the chylothorax remained 4 months post drainage.

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Background: Most UK tuberculosis (TB) cases occur in immigrants from high TB incidence areas, implicating reactivation of imported latent TB infection (LTBI). Strategies to identify and treat immigrant LTBI in primary care at the time of first registration (coded Flag-4) may be effective.

Methods: This was an 11-year retrospective cohort study to evaluate effectiveness of LTBI screening in recent immigrants to Leicestershire at their time of primary care registration.

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