March 2011 Briefing - Pulmonology

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Pulmonology for March 2011. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Exercise Plus Dieting Superior in Older Obese Individuals

WEDNESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Dieting plus exercise may be better than either alone for improvement in physical function in older adults who are obese, according to research published in the March 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Online Health Records Less Used by Minorities, Poor

WEDNESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Online personal health records (PHRs) are less frequently used by racial or ethnic minorities and patients with low annual income, according to a study published in the March 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Air Pollution May Compromise Lung Transplant Patients

TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Lung transplant patients who have high exposure to traffic-related air pollution may be at increased risk for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) and death, according to research published online March 23 in Thorax.

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Decline Seen in Global Youth Mortality Over Last 50 Years

TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Overall mortality declined substantially between 1955 and 2004 in children aged 14 years or younger and in females aged 15 to 24, but a smaller decline was evident for males aged 15 to 24 years, according to a study published online March 29 in The Lancet.

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Room Cleaning Linked to Lower Drug-Resistant Infections

TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Enhanced intensive care unit (ICU) cleaning may reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) transmission, according to a study published in the March 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Guidelines Provided for Deep Vein Thrombosis Management

MONDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- Blood thinners should not be the only therapy considered for patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), according to a scientific statement published online March 21 in Circulation.

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Tuberculosis Rates in United States at All-Time Low

THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- The rate of tuberculosis (TB) infection in the United States continues to decline, but the goal of elimination has not been met, and the infection disproportionately affects foreign-born individuals and ethnic minorities, according to a report published in the March 25 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Menthol Cigarette Smokers Have Lower Cancer Rates

THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Menthol and non-menthol cigarette smokers have similar quitting rates, but menthol smokers have lower lung cancer incidence and mortality, according to a study published online March 23 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Maternal Anemia Associated With Childhood Wheezing

THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Maternal anemia during pregnancy is linked with wheezing and asthma in early childhood, according to a study published in the February issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

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Reduced Hours for Trainees Has Had Little Effect in U.S.

THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Reducing work hours for doctors in training to less than 80 per week has had little impact on patient outcomes or postgraduate training in the United States, according to a literature review published online March 22 in BMJ.

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Tiotropium Shows Edge Over Salmeterol for COPD

WEDNESDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- Tiotropium, an anticholinergic drug, appears to be more effective than salmeterol in preventing exacerbations in patients with moderate or worse chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to research published in the March 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Hydrocortisone Lowers Risk of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia

TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- Intravenous hydrocortisone decreases the risk of developing hospital-acquired pneumonia in intubated trauma patients, according to a study published in the March 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Dalteparin Not Superior to Unfractionated Heparin

TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- Dalteparin, a low-molecular-weight heparin, does not appear any more effective in lowering the incidence of proximal deep-vein thrombosis than unfractionated heparin, according to research published online March 22 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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Antibiotics Reduce Risk of ICU-Acquired Infection

MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Critically ill patients given prophylactic antibiotics may be significantly less likely to be infected by intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired, highly resistant microorganisms, according to research published online March 21 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

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Multifaceted Approach Reduces Pneumonia in ICU

MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) can be significantly reduced with the implementation of multifaceted intervention aimed at increasing the use of evidence-based therapies in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a study published in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

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Majority of Parents Approve of Smoke Exposure Testing

MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- The majority of parents, both smokers and nonsmokers, want their children tested for tobacco-smoke exposure as part of their children's health care settings, according to a study published online March 21 in Pediatrics.

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Professional Values of U.S. and U.K. Doctors Examined

THURSDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- A core of professional values exists among doctors in the United States and the United Kingdom, though significant differences exist in how these values are expressed and prioritized, according to a study published online March 7 in BMJ Quality & Safety.

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Sirolimus Shows Promise for Treating Lung Disease

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Sirolimus, a mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor, appears to be an effective therapy for stabilizing lung function and improving symptoms and quality of life in patients with lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), according to research published online March 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Short Nurse Staffing Linked to Higher Patient Mortality

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Patient mortality appears to be higher when nurse staffing falls eight or more hours below target level and during nursing shifts when patient turnover is high, according to research published in the March 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Adding Omalizumab Improves Asthma Control in Youth

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- The addition of omalizumab to a regimen of guidelines-based therapy among youth with persistent asthma appears to improve asthma control and reduce the need for other medications to control the condition, according to a study published in the March 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Fever Not Tied to Influenza Virus Shedding Duration

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Health care personnel (HCP) infected with influenza (H1N1) 2009 virus who return to work 24 hours after defervescence may still be shedding virus, according to a study published online March 16 in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

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U.S. Death Rate Reaches All-Time Low

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- The age-adjusted death rate for the United States has fallen for 10 straight years and has reached an all-time low of 741 per 100,000, or 2,436,682 deaths, in 2009, down 2.3 percent from 2008, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

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Smokers Advised to Stop Even Just Before Surgery

WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- There is no evidence to suggest that quitting smoking within eight weeks prior to surgery increases postoperative complications, according to a meta-analysis published online March 14 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Heavy Smoking Prevalence Decline Greatest in California

TUESDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Between 1965 and 2007, the prevalence of high-intensity smoking declined in California and in the remaining states, according to a study published in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Regional Variation in Chronic Disease Case Fatality Rates

TUESDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- There is an inverse relationship between the regional frequency of diagnoses for chronic conditions and the case-fatality rate among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, according to a study published in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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New Vital Sign Centile Charts Derived for Children

TUESDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Centile charts derived from a systematic review of observational studies provide new evidence-based reference ranges for these vital signs but do not agree with existing reference ranges for heart rate and respiratory rate in children; the research has been published online March 15 in The Lancet.

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Presence of Biomarker May Indicate Early Emphysema

MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- Otherwise healthy smokers with low DLCO have elevated levels of endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in their blood, which may help clinicians diagnose early stage emphysema, according to research published online March 11 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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U.S. Has Higher Rates of Chronic Disease Than England

MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- Americans experience higher rates of chronic disease and markers of disease than their English counterparts at all ages, according to a study published online March 9 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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Number of Cancer Survivors in U.S. Reaches 11.7 Million

THURSDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- The number of cancer survivors in the United States had increased to nearly 12 million by 2007, according to a report in the March 11 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Interstitial Lung Abnormalities Tied to Reduced Lung Capacity

WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Interstitial lung abnormalities on high-resolution computed tomographic (HRCT) scans appear to be associated with reduced total lung capacity and a lesser amount of emphysema among smokers, according to a study published in the March 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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HealthGrades Finds Rates of Patient Safety Events Vary

WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Patients treated at hospitals rated with a HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award have, on average, a 46 percent lower risk of experiencing a patient safety incident compared to those treated at the lowest-ranked hospitals, according to the eighth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study published online March 9.

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Ethnic Differences Seen in Academic Measures for U.K. Docs

WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- United Kingdom-trained physicians and medical students with ethnic minority backgrounds tend to underperform academically compared to their white peers, according to a meta-analysis published online March 8 in BMJ.

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Exergames Increase Energy Expenditure in All Children

WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Interactive digital exercise featuring player movement (exergames) successfully elevates energy expenditure to a moderate or vigorous intensity among children with various body mass index (BMI) levels , according to a study published online March 7 in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

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Brief CPR Education of Laypersons Proves Beneficial

WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Laypersons who have been exposed to short American Heart Association (AHA) Hands-Only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) videos are more likely to attempt CPR, and demonstrate better CPR technique than untrained individuals, according to a study published in the March issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

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Pharmacological Meta-Analyses Rarely Report Disclosures

TUESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Meta-analyses of pharmacological treatments rarely include information addressing primary study funding and conflicts of interest (COIs) of the authors for the included randomized control trials (RCTs), according to a study published in the March 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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FDA: Adverse Events Tied to Kaletra in Preterm Infants

TUESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has notified health care providers of a revision to the label of lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra) oral solution to include a new warning, as administration of the oral solution may result in serious health problems among premature babies.

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Widespread Communication Technology Use Before Sleep

MONDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- There is widespread use of communication devices, especially laptops and cell phones, in the hour before going to bed, according to the 2011 Sleep in America® Poll released by the National Sleep Foundation.

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Inhaled Epinephrine Gives Temporary Relief From Croup

MONDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- Inhaled epinephrine improves moderate to severe croup symptoms in children from 30 minutes to two hours after treatment, according to a literature review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

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Inflammatory Bowel Disease Tied to Thromboembolism Risk

FRIDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) -- Patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have twice the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) compared to the general population, according to a study published online Feb. 21 in Gut.

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Diuretic Has Similar Effect Regardless of Method or Dose

THURSDAY, March 3 (HealthDay News) -- The responses of patients with acute decompensated heart failure to loop diuretics don't appear to differ between groups administered the agent by bolus or continuous infusion, or at a high or low dose, according to research published in the March 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Fish Oil May Help Cancer Patients Maintain Weight

WEDNESDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- Supplementation with fish oil (FO) may help non-small-cell lung cancer patients maintain weight and muscle mass during chemotherapy, according to research published online Feb. 28 in Cancer.

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Roflumilast Approved for Form of COPD

TUESDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- Roflumilast has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat flares of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) involving chronic bronchitis.

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