BACKGROUND Active tuberculosis (TB) is common among HIV-infected persons living in tuberculosis endemic countries, and screening for tuberculosis (TB) is recommended routinely. We sought to determine the role of chest x-ray and sputum culture in the decision to treat for presumptive TB using active case finding in a large cohort of HIV-infected patients. METHODS Ambulatory HIV-positive subjec...

BACKGROUND The existing World Health Organization diagnostic algorithms for smear-negative TB perform poorly in HIV-infected individuals. New TB diagnostics such as urine TB lipoarabinomannan (LAM) could improve the accuracy and reduce delays in TB diagnosis in HIV-infected smear-negative presumptive TB. We sought to determine predictors for MTB culture-positivity among these patients. METHOD...

Fiberoptic bronchoscopy has become a commonplace procedure in ICUs. Despite the fact that one of the most common indications for bronchoscopy is the presence of retained secretions and atelectasis, there is little research dedicated to its safety and utility in this clinical situation. This article presents a case of an intubated trauma victim who had undergone numerous bronchoscopic procedures...

BACKGROUND After the implementation of a population-based programme of chest x-ray (CXR) screening on smokers in Varese, Italy, lung cancer (LC) mortality was significantly reduced. Analysis of the incremental costs due to this type of screening programme is needed to evaluate its economic impact on the healthcare system. METHODS In July 1997 a population-based cohort, consisting of all high-...

We thank Rogers et al for their comments on our recent article. Although it is possible that there may be some underreporting of chest X-ray (CXR) requests in The Health Improvement Network primary care data set, it is highly unlikely that the associations that we identified in our paper are influenced by this because the practice of underreporting of CXRs is unlikely to be related to deaths fr...

Portable bedside chest X-ray (CXR) is an important and frequently used tool in the intensive care unit (ICU). Unfortunately, the diagnostic value of portable CXR is often low due to technical limitations and suboptimal patient positioning. Additionally, abnormalities in the chest may be hidden on the projection image by overlapping anatomy and devices such as endotracheal tubes, lines and cathe...

BACKGROUND Complementary bedside lung monitoring modalities are often sought in order to assist in the differentiation between several lung opacities in the intensive care unit (ICU). OBJECTIVES To evaluate the use of computerized lung acoustic monitoring as a complementary approach in the differentiation between various chest radiographic densities in critically ill patients. METHODS Lung ...

Chest radiography (CXR) has been used as an effective tool for screening tuberculosis (TB). Because of the lack of radiological expertise in resource-constrained regions, automatic analysis of CXR is appealing as a “first reader”. In addition to screening the CXR for disease, it is critical to highlight locations of the disease in abnormal CXRs. In this paper, we focus on the task of locating T...

BACKGROUND Small pneumothoraxes (PTXs) may not impart an immediate threat to trauma patients after chest injuries. However, the amount of pleural air may increase and become a concern for patients who require positive pressure ventilation or air ambulance transport. Lung ultrasonography (US) is a reliable tool in finding intrapleural air, but the performance characteristics regarding the detect...

OBJECTIVE Describe respiratory health and quality of life in persons exposed to Libby amphibole asbestos (LAA) contaminated vermiculite. DESIGN Cross-sectional descriptive. SETTING Asbestos-related disease clinic in Libby, Montana USA. PARTICIPANTS 329 individuals exposed to LAA; mostly men, married, between 50 and 69 years; two-thirds lived in the surrounding county; one-third lived else...