Potential for lung sound monitoring during bronchial provocation testing.

Background: The use of lung sound monitoring during bronchial provocation testing has not been clearly demonstrated. The appearance of wheeze and changes in inspiratory breath sound intensity have been analysed and related to changes in spirometric parameters and to airways hyperresponsiveness.

Methods: Lung sounds were recorded in 38 patients undergoing a routine carbachol airway challenge (CAC) test.

[Cardiopulmonary exercise evaluation: value and influence of the use of a ramp protocol versus triangular protocol].

The aim of the study was to evaluate a ramp bicycle ergometer exercise protocol consisting of a very small but rapid increase in load (2 watts/12 seconds) for direct measurement of the VO2 max. Eighteen sedentary healthy subjects were in Group I (16 men, mean age 29 +/- 6 years) and 10 men with chronic stable cardiac failure in Group II (mean age: 51 +/- 16 years). All subjects performed two exercise tests within a period of 8 days, one with a ramp protocol (protocol R) and the other with a standard triangular exercise protocol (protocol T) of 30 watts/3 minutes for Group I and 20 watts/2 minutes for Group II.

[Static and dynamic posturography. Application to a population of young athletes].

The authors used a vertical force platform fitted with 4 pressure gauges (Societe Toennies). The static regime provides the statokinesigram, the lateral and sagittal stabilograms and their Fourier transformations. Information is collected with the eyes open and closed, thereby allowing the Romberg quotient to be determined.

Serum iron and transferrin during an exhaustive session of interval training.

Conflicting data have been reported on "sports anaemia" and anaemia during physical training. Most of these results are of studies at rest before or after training. The aim of this investigation was to further study the profiles of serum iron (Se Fe) and transferrin (Se Tr), in 14 physically trained men (28 +/- 6 years) during an exhaustive interval training session.

[Peripheral airway obstruction involving cardiovascular factors. A case report (author's transl)].

A patient with pronounced dyspnoea and cyanosis was found to have severe hypoxaemia with normal spirographic values. His past history included arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction and phlebitis of the lower limb. Airways resistance was normal, but maximal expiratory flow rates at low lung volume (Flow-volume curves) were reduced, suggesting "peripheral" airways obstruction.

[Pulmonary function and clinical pattern in homozygous (PiZ) alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (author's transl)].

A group of 6 males with severe alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency, underwent clinical and pulmonary function evaluation. Findings were compared to those in a group of males with different degrees of airflow obstruction, comparable ages and tobacco consumption, but with normal serum levels of alpha1-antitrypsin. The deficient group was characterized by: (1) a relatively early appearance of symptoms; (2) disturbed lung scans, mostly in the basal zones; (3) radiological evidence, in most cases, of pulmonary emphysema with, in particular, bullae in the lower lung zones; (4) hypoxemia without hypercapnia and a decreased TCO/VA, and (5) a more or less severe reduction of maximal expiratory flows largely, but not exclusively due to a decrease in lung elastic recoil.

[Von Recklinghausen's disease: functional pulmonary changes. 2 case reports].

We report two cases of patients with Von Recklinghausen disease. They exhibited typical cutaneous and diffuse intrapulmonary lesions accompanied by effort dyspnea. Multiple radiological abnormalities were noticed and the pictures showed nodular and interstitial lesions as well as emphysematous areas.

Breath sounds in the clinical assessment of airflow obstruction.

In a group of 34 inpatients showing varying degrees of airflow obstruction we studied the relationship between breath sound intensity (BSI) and abnormalities of lung function. The BSI was evaluated by chest auscultation to provide a score, in a manner similar to that described by Pardee et al. (1976), and was found to correlate closely with indices of airflow obstruction of their logarithms such as specific conductance (r = 0.

Pulmonary and systemic hemodynamic evolution in chronic bronchitis.

Hemodynamic values obtained during right heart catheterization in about 35 patients with chronic bronchitis were compared with the same variables 3.3 years later (range, 2 to 5 years). In the group of 13 patients with mean pulmonary arterial pressure less than 20 mm Hg at the first catheterization, the average value was 15.

[Ventilatory and cardio-respiratory responses during exercise in chronic pulmonary restrictive disease (author's transl)].

Cardio-respiratory changes were studied during light exercise (20 or 40 W) in 45 patients with diminished vital total lung capacity. Diagnosis was : fibrosis (8 subjects, group I), lobectomy (7 subjects, group II), pachypleuritis (11 subjects, group III), thoracoplasty (7 subjects, group IV) and kyphoscoliosis (12 subjects, group V). Changes during exercise were characterized by : an increase in breathing rate much more marked than normally, with a lesser increase in tidal volume, so that ventilatory equivalent was steady, and below 30 except in group I; an increase in PaCO2, even in group I which was hypocapnic at rest, very marked in groups III and V, with worsening of hypoxemia in most cases; and enhancement of pulmonary artery hypertension, severe at rest already in group I.