Role of doxycycline to resolve different types of non-malignant lung and pleural pathology: The results of a pilot observation.

Background: Lung lesions may develop from tissue reactions to known or unknown stimuli and present with different morphological descriptions. The pathogenesis may be induced and maintained by different bioactive substances, of which, the upregulation matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a vital role. Inhibition of the MMPs, therefore, may be a prospective mode of therapy for such lesions.

Leucocytosis in a case of sarcoidosis with pleural involvement--an unknown association.

A case of biopsy-proven sarcoidosis with pleural and lung parenchymal involvement is reported. The resolution of neutrophilia and other disease manifestations with azathioprine points towards sarcoidosis being the probable cause. GG, 45 years old male, presented with fever and right-sided chest pain with biochemical features of granulomatous hepatitis and apparently unexplained leucocytosis.

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in COPD may manifest myocardial ischemia.

Background: Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) is observed frequently in advanced COPD and it appears unrelated to the co-presence of its common risk factors as hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, etc. The patho-physiology of this association is yet unclear. We postulated that ischemia not apparent in the routine clinical evaluation could be the cause of such LVDD.

Prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Background: Reduction of bone mineral density (BMD) is a known and established phenomenon in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there have been no data regarding osteoporosis/osteopenia in COPD patients in India.

Aim: To look for the degree and frequency of osteoporosis/osteopenia in our OPD patients being diagnosed as COPD.

Treatment of asthma: Identification of the practice behavior and the deviation from the guideline recommendations.

Background: Despite an exponential development of the understanding of the disease with availability of good therapy and feasibility of good control along with availability of globally accepted guidelines, there remains a significant gap between the guidelines and prevailing practice behavior for treating asthma all over the globe. This perhaps stands as the single most deterrent factor for good asthma care worldwide. The objective of the study is to analyze the asthma prescriptions to find out the available status of the practice behaviour and the deviations from the guideline in asthma practice.

The role of long-term doxycycline in patients of idiopathic pulmonaryfibrosis: The results of an open prospective trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of long term use of doxycycline in IPF patients.

Materials And Methods: Patients of IPF, selected randomly from out patient services and diagnosed on the basis of HRCT chest, were put on doxycycline in an open prospective trial. They were followed up with monitoring of subjective well being along with measurement of pulse rate and arterial oxygen saturation at rest and after a fixed and certain exercise, forced vital capacity, six minutes walk test, St Georges Respiratory questionnaire, and serial chest X-rays.

Profile of respiratory problems in patients presenting to a referral pulmonary clinic.

Analysis of OPD data of 2012 patients in a referral pulmonary clinic at Kolkata was done following a protocol-based approach. Obstructive airway diseases (COPD and asthma) were the most common (43%) problem followed by infective lung diseases (15%) including tuberculosis, bronchogenic carcinoma (8%), ILD (4%), haemopty-sis of undiagnosed etiology (4.5%), chronic cough of undiagnosed etiology (6.