An Australian COVID-19 respiratory care unit experience.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with a heterogeneous presentation ranging from severe pneumonitis to asymptomatic infection. International studies have demonstrated the utility of respiratory care units (RCUs) to facilitate the delivery of non-invasive ventilation techniques to patients with COVID-19 pneumonitis.

Aims: This study aims to describe the patient characteristics, flow and outcomes of admissions to the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) COVID-19 RCU (CRCU) during its initial period of operation.

Bullous lung disease due to marijuana.

Background And Objective: In contrast to the well-described effects of tobacco smoking upon pulmonary emphysema, with approximately 15% of smokers being affected at the age of 65 years, the effects of marijuana smoking are rarely reported and poorly understood.

Methods: We report a series of 10 patients (mean age 41 +/- 9 years, eight male, two female), who presented over a period of 12 months to our respiratory unit with new respiratory symptoms, and who admitted to regular chronic marijuana smoking (>1 year continuously). Symptoms on presentation were dyspnoea (n = 4), pneumothorax (n = 4) and chest infection (n = 2).

The importance of the airway microvasculature in asthma.

Purpose Of Review: The microvasculature in asthma has been known to contribute to airway-wall thickening and oedema from early post-mortem series. Current concepts of airway inflammation in asthma highlight the importance of the role of the Th2 lymphocyte in the atopic response to aeroallergens, the importance of mast-cell mediators in airway remodelling, potential actions of the vascular response in determining airway thickness and mechanisms of angiogenesis involving endogenous as well as homing progenitor cells with angioblastic potential.

Recent Findings: The development of animal models of asthmatic airway inflammation and remodelling have given new insight into mechanisms of angiogenesis in asthma.

Loss of PKR activity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

There are a number of observations that suggest the dsRNA-activated protein kinase, PKR, may play an active role in formation and maintenance of leukemia, including nonrandom chromosomal deletions in acute leukemia as well as truncations and deletions of the PKR gene in some leukemia cell lines. However, there is little direct evidence from patient material that this is so. Here we show that full-length PKR is present but not active in 21 of 28 patient samples from B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL).