The effect of nonobstructive chronic bronchitis (CB) on mortality is unclear.

Annual lung cancer screening (LCS) has mortality benefits for eligible participants; however, studies demonstrate low adherence to follow-up LCS.

Predictive analytic models leveraging machine learning methods increasingly have become vital to health care organizations hoping to improve clinical outcomes and the efficiency of care delivery for all patients. Unfortunately, predictive models could harm populations that have experienced interpersonal, institutional, and structural biases. Models learn from historically collected data that could be biased. In addition, bias impacts a model's development, application, and interpretation. We present a strategy to evaluate for and mitigate biases in machine learning models that potentially could create harm. We recommend analyzing for disparities between less and more socially advantaged populations across model performance metrics (eg, accuracy, positive predictive value), patient outcomes, and resource allocation and then identify root causes of the disparities (eg, biased data, interpretation) and brainstorm solutions to address the disparities. This strategy follows the lifecycle of machine learning models in health care, namely, identifying the clinical problem, model design, data collection, model training, model validation, model deployment, and monitoring after deployment. To illustrate this approach, we use a hypothetical case of a health system developing and deploying a machine learning model to predict the risk of mortality in 6 months for patients admitted to the hospital to target a hospital's delivery of palliative care services to those with the highest mortality risk. The core ethical concepts of equity and transparency guide our proposed framework to help ensure the safe and effective use of predictive algorithms in health care to help everyone achieve their best possible health.

Influenza is a leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), and results of influenza tests can direct therapy. However, among adults hospitalized with CAP, little is known about the frequency and timing of influenza testing, treatment, and their associations with outcomes.

Although maintaining some amount of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) seems essential, selecting and titrating a specific level for patients with ARDS remains challenging despite extensive research on the subject. Although an "open lung" approach to ventilation is popular and has some degree of biological plausibility, it is not without risk. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence-based guidance regarding initial PEEP settings or how to titrate them early in the course of the illness. Many busy clinicians use a "one-size-fits-all" approach based on local medical culture, but an individualized approach has the potential to offer significant benefit. Here we present a pragmatic approach based on simple measurements available on all ventilators, focused on achieving balance between the potential risks and benefits of PEEP. Acknowledging "best PEEP" as an impossible goal, we aim for a straightforward method to achieve "better PEEP."

An 84-year-old man with an active smoking habit presented to the ED with dyspnea, hemoptysis, and thick phlegm that was difficult to clear. He reported no weight loss, no fever, and no chest pain or dysphonia. He denied both international travel and previous contact with confirmed cases of TB or SARS-CoV-2. He had no known occupational exposures. The patient's personal history included a resolved complete atrioventricular block that required a permanent pacemaker, moderate-to-severe COPD, rheumatoid arthritis (treated with oral prednisone, 2.5 mg/d) and B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (treated with methotrexate and prophylactic oral supplements of ferrous sulfate). Moreover, he was in medical follow up because of a peptic ulcer, atrophic gastritis, and colonic diverticulosis. The patient also had a history of thoracic surgery after an episode of acute mediastinitis from an odontogenic infection, which required ICU management and temporal tracheostomy.

A 54-year-old South African man with a medical history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, seizure disorder, OSA, and latent TB presented to the ER with gradually progressive dyspnea over months. He also reported occasional dry cough and fatigue at presentation but denied fever, chills, chest pain, leg swelling, palpitations, or lightheadedness. He was treated with a course of levofloxacin for presumed community-acquired pneumonia as an outpatient without improvement and had tested negative for COVID-19. He denied occupational or environmental exposures or sick contacts, though he had traveled back to South Africa 1 year before presentation. He had complex partial seizures for the past 22 years, which had been well controlled on phenytoin (300 mg daily). His other home medications included dulaglutide, sertraline, and atorvastatin and had no recent changes. He quit smoking 30 years ago after smoking one pack per day for 10 years.

A 50-year-old woman was seen in the office for recurrent episodes of cough and right-sided chest pain. She had visited the ED three times in the past 15 months for the same complaint. Each time, the pain started gradually affecting the right lateral chest wall. It was pleuritic and was associated with cough and mild shortness of breath. During these episodes, she reported low-grade fever but denied any night sweats, chills, sputum production, wheezing, or hemoptysis. She was treated with antibiotics and systemic steroids with resolution of her symptoms. The patient was an active smoker with a more than 35-pack year history. She had no known medical condition and was not taking any medication routinely at home. She had no family history of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency or Marfan syndrome.

A previously healthy 47-year-old nonsmoking woman was admitted to our hospital with an 8-month history of progressive exertional dyspnea and fatigue. Chest high-resolution CT (HRCT) on admission showed diffuse, bilateral, patchy ground-glass opacity (GGO) (Fig 1A). She was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, and corticosteroid therapy with 8 weeks prednisone taper was completed, with initial good response. Eight months later, she was readmitted because of worsening of the dyspnea, with no fever, wheeze, dry cough, chest pain, weight loss, or hemoptysis. She denied a history of hair loss, skin rash, oral ulcers, or arthralgia. She denied a history of allergy or taking other drugs. She had no occupational or environmental exposures. There was no family history of respiratory diseases or hematologic diseases.

Peripheral pulmonary arterial stenosis (PPAS) is known to cause pulmonary hypertension (PH). Although adult patients at advanced stage have been increasingly reported, there are few reports on clinical characteristics and pulmonary angiography (PAG) findings of early stage PPAS. We present two Japanese siblings with PPAS with homozygosity of RNF213 p.Arg4810Lys-one with advanced stage and the other with early stage. The latter case was an asymptomatic 37-year-old woman with mild PH. Notably, her PAG demonstrated nonthrombotic stenosis in the subsegmental branches of the pulmonary arteries with varying degrees of stenosis among lung segments. Taken together with a family history, genetic analysis, and cerebral angiography, the obtained images were considered as showing PPAS with early stage. This result is clinically informative to diagnose PPAS at an early stage and is also important to understand the pathogenesis of PPAS.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal interstitial lung disease characterized by progressive scar tissue formation. An acute exacerbation of IPF (AE-IPF) is a clinically significant respiratory decompensation that accounts for a significant proportion of IPF-related morbidity and mortality. AE-IPF can be idiopathic or associated with pulmonary embolism, infection, aspiration, surgery, and drug toxicity. In this novel case report, we describe a potential association between AE-IPF and BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination that was successfully treated with a short course of glucocorticoids. While our aim is to raise awareness for this yet-to-be-described adverse event, immunization against vaccine-preventable disease remains widely recommended in vulnerable patients with chronic lung disease such as IPF.