Pulmonary talcosis is a rare but debilitating variant of pneumoconiosis often presenting with isolated non-specific symptoms of progressive exertional dyspnoea or cough. Occupational exposure to talc dust and intravenous drug abuse are well-recognised aetiological factors with only a few cases related to cosmetic talc exposure being reported to date. The authors report a case of a young woman i...

Respiratory symptoms on exertion, such as shortness of breath and wheezing, are commonly associated with asthma, but might also arise from the larynx [1–3]. In recent years, the emergence of exercise laryngoscopy [4] has led to a better understanding of laryngeal movement during exercise, and inspiratory supraglottic collapse on exertion has been established as a common cause of exertional brea...

Dyspnea (respiratory difficulty) and activity limitation are the primary symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and progress relentlessly as the disease advances, contributing to reduced quality of life. In COPD, the mechanisms of dyspnea are multifactorial, but abnormal dynamic ventilatory mechanics are believed to play a central role. In flow-limited patients with COPD, dyna...

OBJECTIVE To assess the performance of a shortened version of the Rose angina questionnaire focusing on exertional chest pain. METHODS Cross sectional analysis of 3987 women aged 60 to 79 years from 23 British towns. The performances of definite Rose angina (using data from the full Rose angina questionnaire) and exertional chest pain (using data from a subset of three questions from the Rose...

Sandblasting is traditionally known as a high-risk profession for potential development of lung silicosis. Reported is a case of a sandblaster with confirmed accelerated silicosis, a condition rather rarely diagnosed in the Czech Republic. Initially, the patient presented with progressive dry cough and exertional dyspnoea. In the early diagnostic process, a possible occupational aetiology was c...

A 40 year old woman with cough and exertional dyspnoea was found to have a large right atrial myxoma by M mode and cross sectional echocardiography. Prolapse of the tumour into the right ventricle occurred during diastole with sufficient force to cause mechanical distortion of the interventricular septum. Septal motion became normal after surgical resection of the myxoma.

A 50 year old man presented with 3 weeks of exertional dyspnoea. His chest radiograph on admission revealed diffuse bilateral interstitial infiltrates. He did not respond to antibiotics but subsequently improved on high dose corticosteroids. Bronchoscopic examination with transbronchial biopsy specimens revealed the presence of non-necrotising granulomas. This case demonstrates an unusual clini...

The hypothesis of the study was that salmeterol and ipratropium would have similar dyspnoea ratings during steady-state cycle ergometry at 1 h, but that salmeterol would reduce dyspnoea at 6 h after administration in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study design was a randomized, double-blind trial in 16 patients (aged 63 +/- 11 yrs) with symptomatic COPD. Two day...

Heart failure with normal ejection fraction (HeFNEF) accounts for ~50% of heart failure admissions. Its pathophysiology and diagnostic criteria are yet to be defined clearly which may hinder the search for effective treatments. The clinical hallmark of HeFNEF is exertional breathlessness, often due to an abnormal increase in left atrial pressure during exercise. Creation of an interatrial commu...

The case history is presented of a 42 year old woman with pulmonary artery occlusion due to tuberculous vasculitis that masqueraded as chronic pulmonary artery embolism and led to severe life threatening haemoptysis necessitating emergency pneumonectomy. It is concluded that obliterative tuberculous endarteritis of the pulmonary arteries should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any...