Cover Article
BiPAP Can Worsen Sleep-Disordered Breathing
Bilevel positive airway pressure, although helpful for many people with sleep-disordered breathing, may increase the frequency of central apneas compared to treatment with continuous positive airway pressure.

Selected Articles

• Small Airway Clearance Lessens With Age
• Avian Influenza—Be Ready, Regardless
• MRSA/VRE Co-Colonization in the ICU
• From Pneumonia to Sepsis—Who Will Progress?
• How to Prevent Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections
• Smokers’ Beliefs About Smoking, Quitting

Cover Article
Can Anticoagulants Help IPF Patients?
Recent research has suggested that thrombosis and coagulation are components of fibrotic lung disease, and that anticoagulant therapy added to corticosteroids may increase patient survival.

Selected Articles

• Poor Familiarity With Infection Prevention Prompts New Flexible Bronchoscopy Statement
• ID Alert: How Effective Are Influenza Vaccinations in the Elderly?
• Quitting is Not the Only Way for Smokers to Decrease Lung Cancer Odds
• Activated Protein C Ineffective in Low-Risk Sepsis
• Living Donors and Lobar Transplants Improve Survival in IPF

Cover Article
Stockpiling Antivirals for an Influenza pandemic—A Good Idea
An Israelis study found that stockpiling antivirals resulted in a reduction in costs and hospitalizations, even if the probability of an influenza pandemic was as low as once every 80 years.

Selected Articles

• Can a Catastrophic Influenza Pandemic Be Averted?
• Experts Weigh In on COPD
• ID Alert: Moraxella catarrhalis—An Important Pathogen in COPD
• The New Pathophysiology of Sleep-Disordered Breathing
• Traditional End Points in PAH: Should They Stay or Should They Go?
• Defining Infection in Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock
• Unplanned Extubation—What Are the Consequences?

Cover Article
Racial Differences in Lung Cancer Risk
Smokers who have a first-degree relative with early-onset lung cancer have a higher risk of developing lung cancer than those without such a family history. This risk is even greater in the first-degree relatives of African-American persons with early-onset lung cancer.

Selected Articles

• Looking at COPD Through the Patients’ Eyes
• Obstacles to Ventilator Weaning and Survival
• Primary Graft Dysfunction Impairs Survival
• Pro/Con Debate: Is Invasive Testing Always Required Before PAH Therapy?
• ID Alert: Building a Better Vaccine
• Lung Function Predicts Mortality After Stem Cell Transplant

Cover Article
Asthma May Raise the Risk for Pneumococcal Disease
Since it has not been proven conclusively that having asthma raises the risk of pneumococcal disease, this group has not been included in recommendations for the pneumococcal vaccine. However, recent research has shown that patients with asthma are indeed at risk of infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae and should therefore be considered candidates for the vaccine.

Selected Articles

• Controlling Weight Gain Could Improve the Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation
• Secondary Primary Tumors in Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
• For ICU Patients, Delirium Is a Real Problem
• Why Are Women At Risk for Primary Graft Dysfunction?
• ID Alert: Adolescents and Adults Need a Pertussis Booster
• Inhaled Iloprost Therapy Effective in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Cover Article
A New Hope for IPF Patients?
Recent research suggests that pirfenidone may improve lung function and reduce the number of exacerbations in patients with IPF. In a controlled trial originally planned to last 12 months, only the placebo group had experienced acute exacerbations nine months into the study. In addition, during the six-minute walk test, the pirfenidone group had an increase in oxygen saturation levels compared with the control group, whose oxygen saturation levels decreased. The trial was stopped after nine months and pirfenidone was also given to the control group.

Selected Articles

• How Does Obesity Affect Asthma?
• The Como Conference Position Statement on Lung Cancer Screening
• RSV—Another Target for Immunization
• Progress Seen in Palliative Treatment of Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Over the Last Decade
• The Case for Low Tidal Volume Ventilation
• Lung Volume Reduction Revisited

Cover Article
In Severe Asthma, Can Sodium Bicarbonate Save the Day?
A group of Dutch researchers evaluated the use of intravenous sodium bicarbonate in 17 children with life-threatening asthma. The administration of sodium bicarbonate was associated with a significant improvement in PCO₂ and improved children’s respiratory distress as well.

Selected Articles

• Sudden Death During the Night—OSA Patients at Risk
• Lung Cancer Symptoms Often Unrecognized by Patients
• Asthma Patients Want Involvement in Treatment Decisions
• Corticosteroids in ARDS—The Debate Goes On
• Postoperative Pulmonary Complications
• Purpura Fulminans From S aureus—A New Clinical Entity?
• Literature Monitor

Cover Article
Racial Disparities in Response to Asthma Treatment
Researchers recently measured the corticosteroid response in 395 asthmatic patients and 202 nonasthmatic controls. They found that black patients had a diminshed response to corticosteroids—regardless of their disease status. This finding underscores the need for careful monitoring of asthma medication dosages in black patients.

Selected Articles

• Differences Between CF Patients Diagnosed in Adulthood Versus Childhood
• What Causes Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers?
• New Treatments Take Aim at Critical Illness
• EUS-FNA—Detecting What Other Diagnostic Tools Can't
• Bloodstream Infections—Less Ill Patients at Greater Risk of Death
• Literature Monitor

Cover Article
Smog May Be Bad for the Heart, Too
In addition to its well-established link to adverse lung health, air pollution may also be associated with subclinical atherosclerosis, thus increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease in urban populations.

Selected Articles

• Self-Referred Imaging—Not a Pretty Picture
• Gene Expression Profiles May Lead to Customized Asthma Care
• How S Pnuemoniae Hitches a Rise to the Bloodstream
• Errors in the ICU—A Prescription for Change
• Literature Monitor

Cover Article
Can Stem Cells Help CF Patients?
Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into airway epithelial cells ex vivo. By means of a virus vector, the stem cells can be gene corrected in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Selected Articles

• Apnea and Acute Cardiac Problems Linked Yet Again
• Published Protocols Not Followed When Diagnosing Lung Cancer
• Hope on the Horizon for IPF Patients
• Rationing Care in the ICU—Everybody Does It
• Literature Monitor

Cover Article
It Can Take Months to Clear Particles From the Airways
Surprisingly, particle clearance is not completed in a day, as was previously believed, but over weeks or months. Particle clearance from the airways appears to involve a brief last phase followed by a slow phase of long duration.

Selected Articles

• Like Other Biological Processes, Lung Function Has Circadian Rhythms
• What Role Do Growth Factors Play in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?
• Tracheostomy—Sooner or Later?
• Nrf2 May Protect Against Emphysema
• Literature Monitor

Cover Article
Can Smoking Cause Adult-Onset Asthma?
After conducting a population-based, case-control study to investigate the effects of current and past smoking on the incidence of asthma in adults, Finnish researchers conclude that smoking is a significant cause of asthma in adults.

Selected Articles

• From the Vineyard to the Lungs—A New Benefit of Red Wine
• Respiratory Therapists at Risk for Asthma
• Can COPD Variability Be Explained?
• NPPV in Patients With Orders Not to Intubate
• Literature Monitor