You see a 50-year-old woman for the first time in your office. She tells you she’s still smoking a pack per day. She’s trying to cut down, but it’s hard. For the past few years she’s had a cough each winter and can’t walk the stairs to her second floor apartment without getting winded. For… Read More…
In this week’s Case Record of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a 74-year-old man with pemphigus vulgaris was referred for evaluation of lung nodules. Imaging of the chest revealed multiple ill-defined nodules, some with marked 18F fluorodeoxyglucose avidity. A diagnostic procedure was performed. Cryptococcosis is most often seen in the United States in patients with advanced HIV… Read More…
Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are a source of substantial morbidity. In a randomized, controlled trial involving patients with moderately severe COPD, daily treatment with azithromycin for 1 year was associated with fewer exacerbations. Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) result in frequent visits to physicians’ offices and emergency rooms and numerous hospitalizations… Read More…
In the Original Article, Susceptibility to Exacerbation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Hurst et al. examined the rate of exacerbations among patients with COPD over a period of 3 years. The strongest predictor of an exacerbation in a given year was the presence of an exacerbation in the previous year. The natural history of chronic… Read More…
