Cough may warn of danger for patients with lung-scarring disease
2011-10-19
(Press-News.org) A new analysis has found that coughing may signal trouble for patients with the lung-scarring disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The study, published in the journal Respirology, found that patients with the condition who also cough are more likely to develop advanced forms of the disease that may be life threatening.
When idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis develops, tissue deep in the lungs becomes thick and scarred, likely due to a response to an unknown substance. The condition affects approximately 100,000 individuals in the United States, and up to half die within three years of being diagnosed.
Almost all patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis experience shortness of breath. The second most common symptom is cough. Shortness of breath is a known warning sign that a patient has a serious form of the disease, but little is known about the importance of cough.To investigate, Christopher Ryerson, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues studied 242 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. They found that cough was present in 84% of patients. It was more common in patients with advanced disease and in those who had never smoked. Also, the presence of cough predicted more rapid disease progression, regardless of the severity of a patient's disease. The study's findings indicate that the presence of cough may predict which patients are likely to die prematurely or need a lung transplant in the near future.
To investigate, Christopher Ryerson, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues studied 242 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. They found that cough was present in 84% of patients. It was more common in patients with advanced disease and in those who had never smoked. Also, the presence of cough predicted more rapid disease progression, regardless of the severity of a patient's disease. The study's findings indicate that the presence of cough may predict which patients are likely to die prematurely or need a lung transplant in the near future.
The authors concluded that patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who cough may have a worse prognosis compared with patients who do not cough. While additional studies are needed to validate the results, patients who cough may benefit from closer monitoring and more aggressive treatments.
"These findings improve our understanding of cough in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," said Dr. Ryerson. "The reason for the association between cough and never having smoked is unknown, but may provide insight into the pathogenesis of cough in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and thus prompt future research in this area," he added.
INFORMATION:
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-10-19
Global digital marketing company bigmouthmedia has announced the results of its annual affiliate marketing survey. Titled 'Exploring Online Affiliate Marketing Trends', the survey of UK based affiliates took in the views and opinions of a number of affiliate marketers to reveal insights on how this market is performing and indicates key technology and operational trends on where it is going.
In particular the survey analyses and identifies key insights in to the relationships between affiliate marketers and agencies, the impact of Google (as an affiliate) and Google's ...
2011-10-19
For better and for worse, human health depends on a cell's motility –– the ability to crawl from place to place. In every human body, millions of cells –are crawling around doing mostly good deeds ––– though if any of those crawlers are cancerous, watch out.
"This is not some horrible sci-fi movie come true but, instead, normal cells carrying out their daily duties," said Florida State University cell biologist Tom Roberts. For 35 years he has studied the mechanical and molecular means by which amorphous single cells purposefully propel themselves throughout the body ...
2011-10-19
Scientists have increased the estimate on the number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean in a paper published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The increase follows a refined statistical analysis of data compiled in 2008 from the largest whale survey ever undertaken to assess humpback whale populations throughout the North Pacific.
The number of North Pacific Humpback Whales in the 2008 study known as the Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks, or SPLASH, was estimated at just under 20,000 based on a preliminary look at the ...
2011-10-19
Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast today announced the appointment of Charles G. Alvarez as Chief Financial Officer. With over 30 years in financial management, Mr. Alvarez has held a number of executive-level financial positions in the Silicon Valley and will now be responsible for the long-term business and financial strategies of the council.
"We are thrilled that Mr. Alvarez will be bringing his breadth of financial management experience to the council," said Sherry Sybesma, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast. "His ...
2011-10-19
Being hospitalized for heart failure (HF) was about 30 percent less likely in 2008 than in 1998, according to a study by Yale physicians in the Oct. 19 issue of JAMA. The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remained high.
Led by Jersey Chen, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the study examined data from 55,097,390 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized in the United States and Puerto Rico ...
2011-10-19
COLUMBIA, Mo. – America's elderly population will nearly double by 2050, according to a Pew Research report. As baby boomers enter retirement, concern exists as to who will care for them as they age. Traditionally, children have accepted the caregiving responsibilities, but those caregiving roles are becoming blurred as more families are affected by divorce and remarriage than in previous decades. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that relationship quality trumps genetic ties when determining caregiving obligations.
Lawrence Ganong, a professor and co-chair ...
2011-10-19
Napa Technology, developer of the WineStation Intelligent Preservation and Dispensing System, commissioned a survey of 40 top wine retailers nationwide on wine purchasing trends and best practices for increasing bottle sales.
Respondents agreed that today's consumers are willing to pay more, when given the opportunity to sample wine before they buy. And those retailers willing to look outside the wine bottle for creative and technologically innovative solutions are seeing the profits pour in.
The survey found that 76 percent of retailers agree that wine buying customers ...
2011-10-19
It's a pattern that no doubt repeats itself daily in hundreds of millions of offices around the world: People sit down, turn on their computers, set their mobile phones on their desks and begin to work. What if a hacker could use that phone to track what the person was typing on the keyboard just inches away?
A research team at Georgia Tech has discovered how to do exactly that, using a smartphone accelerometer—the internal device that detects when and how the phone is tilted—to sense keyboard vibrations and decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy. ...
2011-10-19
A UCSF study gives hope to those suffering from severe cases of bacterial corneal ulcers, which can lead to blindness if left untreated. The use of topical corticosteroids in a randomized controlled trial was found to be neither beneficial nor harmful in the overall patient population in the study. However, it helped patients who had more serious forms of bacterial corneal ulcers, according to UCSF researchers.
In a paper published this month in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, researchers found significant vision improvement—one and a ...
2011-10-19
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — First results from a large-scale Phase III trial of RTS,S*, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), show the malaria vaccine candidate to provide young African children with significant protection against clinical and severe malaria with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile. The results were announced today at the Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington.
Half the world's population is at risk of malaria. The disease is responsible for close to 800,000 deaths each year, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Cough may warn of danger for patients with lung-scarring disease
