In the developed world, Guillain-Barré syndrome and myasthenia gravis account for the majority of cases of acute respiratory failure associated with neuromuscular disease. The 4 components that contribute to respiratory failure are upper-airway dysfunction, inspiratory-muscle weakness, expiratory-muscle weakness, and the pulmonary complications associated with these conditions. Careful observat...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of increasing the tidal volume on pulmonary ventilation-perfusion relations in patients with respiratory failure caused by cardiopulmonary disease. The frequent occurrence of an increased physiologic dead space (2, 3) and of increased physiologic shunting (3) in patients undergoing prolonged artificial ventilation has previously been describ...

INTRODUCTION Airway obstruction and possible concomitant pulmonary diseases in COPD cannot be identified conventionally with any single diagnostic tool. We aimed to diagnose and grade COPD severity and identify pulmonary comorbidities associated with COPD with ventilation/perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (V/P SPECT) using Technegas as the functional ventilation imaging agent...

OBJECTIVES Aiming to improve the anatomical resolution of electrical impedance tomography images, we developed a fuzzy model based on electrical impedance tomography's high temporal resolution and on the functional pulmonary signals of perfusion and ventilation. INTRODUCTION Electrical impedance tomography images carry information about both ventilation and perfusion. However, these images ar...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema is a common cause of respiratory distress in emergency department (ED) patients. Noninvasive ventilation by noninvasive positive pressure ventilation or continuous positive airway pressure has been studied as a treatment strategy. We critically evaluate the evidence for the use of noninvasive ventilation on rates of hospital mortality and endotr...

OBJECTIVES Clinical trials of either pulmonary perfusion or ventilation during cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP) are equivocal. We hypothesized that to achieve significant improvement in outcomes both interventions had to be concurrent. DESIGN Retrospective case-control study. SETTINGS Major academic tertiary referral medical center. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventy-four consecutive patients w...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary infections caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii in immunocompromised host can be associated with cysts, pneumatoceles and air leaks that can progress to pneumomediastinum and pneumothoraxes. In such cases, it can be challenging to maintain adequate gas exchange by conventional mechanical ventilation and at the same time prevent further ventilator-induced lung injury. We report ...

pulmonary air leaks are usually complications of mechanical ventilation, although they can occur spontaneously. the reported incidence varies from 1% in term infants to 20% in preterm infants. the incidence has decreased in recent years. Ventilatory manoeuvres which increase mean airway pressure are associated with increased air leaks. use of higher ventilatory rates, shorter inspiratory times ...

Ventilation and perfusion lung scintigraphy is an established and safe noninvasive technique which has been used for nearly 30 years to establish the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Recently, in common with other diagnostic tests, there has arisen the need to reassess the effectiveness of this test in the clinical setting. A retrospective analysis of 244 patients undergoing ventilation-perfusi...

BACKGROUND In patients with chronic heart failure, abnormal ventilation at cardiopulmonary testing (expressed by minute ventilation-to-carbon dioxide production, or VE/VCO2 slope, and resting end-tidal CO2 pressure) may derive either from abnormal autonomic or chemoreflex regulation or from lung dysfunction induced by pulmonary congestion. The latter hypothesis is supported by measurement of pu...