Abandoning daily routine chest radiography in the intensive care unit: meta-analysis.

Purpose: To systematically examine whether abandoning daily routine chest radiography would adversely affect outcomes, such as mortality and length of stay (LOS), and identify a subgroup in which daily routine chest radiography might be beneficial.

Materials And Methods: This was a meta-analysis of clinical trials that examined the effect of abandoning daily routine chest radiography in adults in intensive care units (ICUs). Studies were identified through searches of MEDLINE, Cochrane Database, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Biological Abstracts, and CINAHL.

High levels of PEEP may improve survival in acute respiratory distress syndrome: A meta-analysis.

Objective: Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) has been viewed as an essential component of mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute lung injury (ALI). However, clinical trials have not yet convincingly demonstrated that high PEEP levels improve survival. The object of this study was to test a priori hypotheses that a small but clinically important mortality benefit of high PEEP did exist, especially in patients with greater overall severity of illness and differences in PEEP protocols might have affected the study results.

Safety, tolerability and risk benefit analysis of tiotropium in COPD.

COPD is a chronic disease and, like many other chronic diseases, there is no treatment to reverse the severity of the disease except for lung transplant. To date, no inhaled medications have been shown to improve survival. Tiotropium bromide is a long-acting inhaled anticholinergic drug for the treatment of COPD that can improve lung function, reduce symptoms and exacerbations, and improve quality of life with once-daily dosing.