Aerodigestoscopy (ADS): The Feasibility, Safety, and Comfort of a Comprehensive Procedure for the Evaluation of Physiological Disorders of the Aerodigestive Tract.

Limited access to the comprehensive assessment of disorders of the upper aerodigestive tract is a barrier to care in rural health facilities. Assessment of the full aerodigestive tract requires a variety of specialists. The inability to access the necessary specialists can result in misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, and increased associated mortality.

Pseudomembranous aspergillar tracheobronchitis in a non-neutropenic critically ill patient in the intensive care unit.

Invasive aspergillosis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised patients. Prolonged neutropenia is the most common risk factor. It has rarely been reported to occur in non-neutropenic critically ill patients in the intensive care unit setting.

Medical therapy of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare pulmonary disease.

Fifty-four patients meeting strict criteria for invasive pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex have been treated and followed at San Antonio State Chest Hospital during the past 15 yr. Chemotherapy with standard antituberculosis drugs was successful in effecting sputum conversion in 32 (59%) of the 54 patients. Regimens containing 2 drugs were successful in only 1 of 10 patients.

Rounded atelectasis: a new criterion for benignancy.

A malignancy must be considered whenever a mass lesion is encountered on a chest roentgenogram. Unless an unequivocal diagnosis of a benign lesion is made, thoracotomy is usually indicated. Rounded atelectasis, while only having been recently described, is being encountered with increasing frequency.