Effectiveness of perioperative pulmonary rehabilitation in thoracic surgery.

Background: Functional condition is crucial for operability of patients with lung cancer and/or chronic respiratory diseases. The aim of the study was to measure changes of functional and quality of life parameters in terms of the effectiveness of perioperative pulmonary rehabilitation (PR).

Methods: A total of 208 COPD patients (age: 63±9 years, man/woman: 114/94, FEV1: 62±14%pred) participated in a perioperative PR program.

Re-certification of respiratory professionals: current practice and the future - educational forum report.

http://ow.ly/pUKY30bzcrK.

L-Arginine Pathway in COPD Patients with Acute Exacerbation: A New Potential Biomarker.

Background: Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) remains a major cause of mortality. Clinical criteria of AECOPD are subjective. Biomarkers for AECOPD may aid in the initiation of early treatment.

Exhaled carbon monoxide in airway diseases: from research findings to clinical relevance.

Breath tests have gained increasing interest in recent years mainly driven by the unmet clinical need to monitor airway diseases and to obtain information of unravelled aspects of respiratory disorders. Carbon monoxide is present in the exhaled breath and has been suggested to reflect ongoing oxidative stress, even if there are some confounding factors limiting its clinical usefulness. Increased concentration of exhaled carbon monoxide has been demonstrated in different acute and chronic airway diseases including allergic rhinitis, asthma, bronchiectasis, and post transplant bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome.

Exhaled nitric oxide and carbon monoxide in respiratory diseases.

Breath tests have gained increasing interest in recent years mainly driven by the unmet clinical need to monitor airway diseases and to obtain information on unravelled aspects of respiratory disorders. A prototype of such measurement reaching clinical significance besides its use as a research tool is the measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (NO). It took hardly more than a decade after the discovery that exhaled breath contains NO for this measurement to be approved for clinical practice to monitor anti-inflammatory treatment in asthma.

The effect of allergic rhinitis on adenosine concentration in exhaled breath condensate.

Background: Patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) frequently develop asthma. This initiating inflammation in the lower airways may result in increased levels of inflammatory mediators such as adenosine in the exhaled breath.

Objective: We compared adenosine levels in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and both exhaled and nasal nitric oxide (NO) levels of AR patients and healthy control subjects.

Exhaled breath condensate: methodological recommendations and unresolved questions.

Collection of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a noninvasive method for obtaining samples from the lungs. EBC contains large number of mediators including adenosine, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, isoprostanes, leukotrienes, nitrogen oxides, peptides and cytokines. Concentrations of these mediators are influenced by lung diseases and modulated by therapeutic interventions.

Exhaled nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide concentrations in asthmatic smokers.

Background: Cigarette smoking is associated with decreased nitric oxide (NO) production and increased oxidative stress in the airways. Exhaled NO levels are not higher in asthmatic smokers than in healthy non-smokers, and the value of exhaled NO for diagnosing asthma in smokers has been questioned.

Objectives: To compare exhaled NO concentrations between healthy and steroid-naive and steroid-treated asthmatic smokers and non-smokers.

Comparison of nasal and oral inhalation during exhaled breath condensate collection.

Analysis of exhaled breath condensate is a method for noninvasive assessment of the lung. Condensate can be collected with a nose clip (subjects inhale and exhale via the mouth) or without it (subjects inhale via the nose and exhale via the mouth), but the mode of inhalation may influence condensate volume and mediator levels. We compared condensate volume and adenosine, ammonia, and thromboxane B2 levels in young healthy volunteers (n = 25) in samples collected for 10 minutes from subjects with or without a nose clip.

"Haemoxygenase-1 induction and exhaled markers of oxidative stress in lung diseases", summary of the ERS Research Seminar in Budapest, Hungary, September, 1999.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in noninvasive monitoring of airway inflammation and oxidative stress. Several volatile and nonvolatile substances can be measured in exhaled breath and have been suggested as potential biomarkers of these events. Exhaled gases, including carbon monoxide (CO), alkanes (ethane, pentane), and substances measured in breath condensate, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and isoprostanes were all suggested as potential markers of oxidative stress in the lung.

Tissue oxygenation in septic respiratory failure.

The relationships between tissue oxygenation and the different haemodynamic and respiratory parameters were studied in 20 patients with ARDS of septic origin. Good regressions were found between O2 delivery and cardiac index (r = 0.8507), O2 delivery and systemic vascular resistance (r = -0.