Pneumonologia i Alergologia Polska

The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) ranges from 4 to 7% in men and from 2 to 5% in women. Its deleterious consequences such as traffic accidents, cardiovascular complications increasing morbidity and mortality, make it a major health problem. Apart from obesity (a major risk factor for OSAHS), hypothyroid patients are prone to reveal this phenotype. Although hypothyroidism seems an acknowledged risk factor for OSAHS, some authors report the lack of clinically relevant association...

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory heterogeneous disease of the lower respiratory tract characterised by the occurrence of bronchial hyper-responsiveness and paroxysmal, changeable bronchial obstruction. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) is one of the cytokines involved in mediating airway inflammation and remodelling. The level of TGF-b1 gene expression correlates with severity of symptoms. Alterations in the main SMAD signal transmission, overexpression of TGF-b genes and changes in the transcriptome cause excessive secretion of TGF-b and its increased expression in target cells, which clinically induces a moderate-severe or severe course of asthma as well as an earlier and faster disease progression...

Primary pulmonary angiosarcoma (PPA) is a rare tumour arising from arterial or venous pulmonary vessels of various size. It is characterized by aggressive course and poor prognosis. The early diagnosis is difficult due to diverse clinical and radiological manifestations. We present a case report of 70 year-old man, active cigarette-smoker, with a 2-month history of non-massive hemoptysis. The thorax CT revealed several solid pulmonary nodules surrounded by areas of ground glass opacity. As bronchoscopy failed to deliver adequate tissue samples, video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) with pleura and lung biopsy was necessary...

Due to an increasing amount of patients on immunosuppressive treatment, the number of tuberculosis (TB) of atypical course and extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases increase. Locomotor system is a place of every fifth case of extrapulmonary TB. Because of lack of characteristic symptoms, as well as rare co-occurrence of active lung lesions in radiological imaging, proper diagnosis is hard to establish. We present a case of patient on immunosuppressive therapy due to myositis, in whom we diagnosed musculoskeletal tuberculosis in form of involvement of tendon sheath and formation of synovial cyst...

INTRODUCTION: The risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) infection is correlated with the concentration of infectious particles and exposure time. In closed populations, healthy people staying in very frequent, close and prolonged contact with a smear-positive person, become infected and represent another link in the chain of transmission of the disease. Therefore, in the fight against tuberculosis, an important element is quick identification of the patient and potentially infected people from his environment...

INTRODUCTION: Inhomogeneity of lung attenuation pattern is observed in high resolution chest computed tomography (HRCT) in some IPAH patients despite lack of interstitial lung disease. Such radiological changes are described either as ill-defined centrilobular nodules (CN) or as focal ground glass opacities (FGGO). There is no consensus in the literature, whether they indicate the distinct type of IPAH, or pulmonary venoocclusive disease (PVOD) with subtle radiological changes. Thus the aim of the present pilot study was to assess the frequency and clinical significance of inhomogenic lung attenuation pattern in IPAH...

INTRODUCTION: The study aimed to compare the effect of obesity with and without metabolic syndrome on asthma severity, quality of life, sleep quality, sleep disordered breathing and inflammatory markers as compared to non-obese asthma patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 60 asthma patients recruited for the study were divided equally into non-obese (NOA), obese without metabolic syndrome (OANMS) and obese with metabolic syndrome (OAMS) groups. Study cohorts were assessed for severity of asthma, quality of life and quality of sleep using questionnaires and inflammatory markers (FENO, hs-CRP, IL-5, IL-6 and leptin)...

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study is to indicate the relation between the use of alternative medicine and the occurrence of allergic diseases in the Polish population of adults in the age of 20-44 years. Moreover the additional aim of the study is to define the relation between the sex, age and place of living and the use of alternative medicine. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data from the project Epidemiology of Allergic Diseases in Poland (ECAP) has been used for analysis...

Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. Most commonly it results in the formation of non-caseating granulomas in intrathoracic lymph nodes and lung parenchyma, but the clinical course and picture may be complicated by extrapulmonary involvement and many non-respiratory signs and symptoms which are directly related to the disease. In addition, sarcoidosis patients may suffer from a plethora of symptoms of uncertain or unknown origin. Fatigue is one of these symptoms, and according to some authors it is reported by the majority of patients with active sarcoidosis, but also by a smaller proportion of patients with inactive sarcoidosis, or even with complete clinical and radiological remission...

Bronchial asthma is characterised by high levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE) and overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukins IL-4, IL-13 and IL-5 needed for, amongst other things, the production of IgE and the differentiation, maturation, migration and survival of eosinophils. Eosinophils are one of the most important cells in allergic inflammation. Their presence in tissue is linked to the persistence of inflammatory infiltrate, tissue damage and remodelling. Although these cells are very sensitive to corticosteroids, some asthmatic patients do not respond to high doses of these drugs, even when administered systemically...

The pharmaceutical care is a pharmacist's contribution to the care of individual patients and leads to optimize the use of drugs. The pharmaceutical care may improve adherence, clinical effectiveness of providing therapy and improve the health-related quality of life. The conducted literature review confirmed that pharmaceutical care and advanced pharmaceutical services are clinical effective in asthma. The implementation of pharmaceutical care under Polish conditions is currently insufficient and remains challenging for the future...

A mature teratoma is a tumour of primary germ cells. It is often found in the mediastinum. The authors describe a case of a young man who demonstrated haemoptysis as the only symptom of a mediastinal tumour. The tumour was removed operatively, sent for histopathological examination and immunohistochemistry. The removed tumour was a mature teratoma including elements of the pancreas. The authors revealed the presence of trypsin in the pancreatic acinar cells. The proteolytic activity of the tumour was taken as the cause of haemoptysis because of enzymatic erosion of lung tissue intimately attached to the tumour...

INTRODUCTION: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease in adults. It affects their quality of life. Studies confirm that depression and anxiety occurs in asthma patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 96 patients with asthma divided into two groups: patients with controlled (n = 33) and uncontrolled asthma (n = 63). The analysis of asthma control was performed on the basis of the ACT (Asthma Control Test) results. The study used SF-36 (Short Form 36) questionnaire and HADS (Hospital and Depression Scale) Scale...

INTRODUCTION: Recent developments in treatment have steadily raised the median predicted age of survival for people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). We report the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in CF adult patients and correlate our findings with the patients' demographic characteristics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Cystic Fibrosis Quality of Life (CFQoL) questionnaire was answered by 77 CF adult patients. The questionnaire included questions pertaining to age, sex and level of education and covered eight sections of functioning...

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Comorbidity is the occurrence of concomitant disease in addition to an index disease of interest or the simultaneous occurrence of multiple diseases in an individual. Lung cancer is associated with age and smoking, and both age and smoking are strongly associated with comorbidity. Lung cancer is the most common malignancy in the world. Comorbidity, such as diseases of cardiovascular, pulmonary and other systems may influence prognosis in lung cancer as well as complicate its treatment. In this paper we tried to conclude the significance of the individual comorbidities in lung cancer and their impact on particular treatment method...

In general aneurysms of the pulmonary arteries are less frequent than intracranial, aortic or other vascular locations. Infectious causes include bacteria such as Staphylococcus sp and Streptococcus sp, mycobacteria, Treponema pallidium (syphilis) and rarely fungi. We report a 7 year old female with two right-sided parahilar pseudo-aneurysm of fungal origin with a prior history of ventricular septal defect. Pulmonary mycotic pseudo-aneurysms are very rare and require a high suspicion to diagnose. If a patient is still symptomatic for fever and cough for a long time, and consolidation on x-ray is not improving on antibiotics, contrast-enhanced computed tomography is indicated...

Diffuse idiopathic pulmonary neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia (DIPNECH) is a rare disease that is classically described as presenting with cough, dyspnea, and wheezing in non-smoker middle aged females. Pulmonary function tests commonly demonstrate an obstructive pattern and CT of chest usually reveals diffuse air trapping with mosaic pattern. We present a case of patient with DIPNECH manifesting with restrictive pattern and as usual interstitial pneumonia on imaging.

INTRODUCTION: Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) is a significant health problem in some parts of the world. Three major cytokines involved in TB immunopathogenesis include IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10. The susceptibility to MDR TB may be genetically determined. The aim of the study was to assess the association of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 gene polymorphisms with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) in Ukrainian population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We observed 140 patients suffering from infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis (PT) and 30 apparently healthy subjects...