Asthma is increasingly recognized as an underlying risk factor for severe respiratory disease in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), particularly in the United States. Here, we report the postmortem lung findings from a 37-year-old man with asthma, who met the clinical criteria for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and died of COVID-19 less than 2 weeks after presentation to the hospital. His lungs showed mucus plugging and other histologic changes attributable to asthma, as well as early diffuse alveolar damage and a fibrinous pneumonia. The presence of diffuse alveolar damage is similar to descriptions of autopsy lung findings from patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and the absence of a neutrophil-rich acute bronchopneumonia differs from the histologic changes typical of influenza. The relative contribution of mucus plugging to his hypoxemia is unknown.

Palliative ventilator withdrawal (PVW) in the ICU is a common occurrence.

A high percentage of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients experience interstitial lung disease (ILD) during the disease course. Recent data have shown that lung ultrasound (LUS) can assess ILD by the evaluation of B-lines, the sonographic sign of pulmonary interstitial involvement.

Despite the increasing popularity of open water swimming worldwide, swimming-induced pulmonary edema (SIPE) is a poorly recognized condition lacking established diagnostic criteria.

Fluid and vasopressor management in septic shock remains controversial. In this randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the efficacy of dynamic measures (stroke volume change during passive leg raise) to guide resuscitation and improve patient outcome.

COPD is a leading cause of mortality.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since then, COVID-19 has become a pandemic affecting more than 4.1 million people worldwide. Patients with COVID-19 have a wide spectrum of manifestations, one being cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and its fatal correlate, secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH). Anti-cytokine therapy such as tocilizumab, an IL-6 receptor antagonist, is a potential treatment for COVID-19; however, data regarding the efficacy of this anti-IL-6 therapy are currently lacking. We report two cases of patients who received a diagnosis of COVID-19 complicated by CRS and were treated with tocilizumab. Both patients progressed to sHLH despite treatment with tocilizumab, and one developed viral myocarditis, challenging the safety and clinical usefulness of tocilizumab in the treatment of COVID-19-induced CRS. These cases highlight the need for clinical trials to determine optimal patient selection and timing for the use of tocilizumab during this disease process.

Peak inspiratory flow (PIF) has been proposed as a measure to assess a patient's ability to use dry powder inhalers (DPIs). However, robust quality criteria to determine a repeatability limit for measuring PIF are lacking.

OSA conveys worse clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease. The STOP-BANG score is a simple tool that evaluates the risk of OSA and can be added to the large number of clinical variables and scores that are obtained during the management of patients with myocardial infarction (MI). Currently, machine learning (ML) is able to select and integrate numerous variables to optimize prediction tasks.

Pulmonary gas exchange efficiency, determined by the alveolar-to-arterial Po2 difference (A-aDo2), progressively worsens during exercise at sea-level; this response is further elevated during exercise in hypoxia. Traditionally, pulmonary gas exchange efficiency is assessed through measurements of ventilation and end-tidal gases paired with direct arterial blood gas (ABG) sampling. Because these measures have a number of caveats, particularly invasive blood sampling, the development of new approaches for the noninvasive assessment of pulmonary gas exchange is needed.

Competence in point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) is widely recommended by several critical care societies. Despite numerous introductory short courses, very few doctors attain PoCUS competence because of the challenges in establishing longitudinal competence programs.

Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is an effective form of treatment in obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) with severe OSA. However, there is paucity of evidence in patients with OHS without severe OSA phenotype.

Pulmonary complications, including infections, are highly prevalent in patients after hematopoietic cell transplantation with chronic graft-vs-host disease. These comorbid diseases can make the diagnosis of early lung graft-vs-host disease (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome) challenging. A quantitative method to differentiate among these pulmonary diseases can address diagnostic challenges and facilitate earlier and more targeted therapy.

Health systems confronting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic must plan for surges in ICU demand and equitably distribute resources to maximize benefit for critically ill patients and the public during periods of resource scarcity. For example, morbidity and mortality could be mitigated by a proactive regional plan for the triage of mechanical ventilators. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a resource-intensive and potentially life-saving modality in severe respiratory failure, has generally not been included in proactive disaster preparedness until recently. This paper explores underlying assumptions and triage principles that could guide the integration of ECMO resources into existing disaster planning. Drawing from a collaborative framework developed by one US metropolitan area with multiple adult and pediatric extracorporeal life support centers, this paper aims to inform decision-making around ECMO use during a pandemic such as COVID-19. It also addresses the ethical and practical aspects of not continuing to offer ECMO during a disaster.

We report the case of an 88-year-old man with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who presented with ARDS and septic shock. The patient had exquisite BP sensitivity to low-dose angiotensin II (Ang-2), allowing for rapid liberation from high-dose vasopressors. We hypothesize that sensitivity to Ang-2 might be related to biological effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. The case is suggestive of a potential role for synthetic Ang-2 for patients with COVID-19 and septic shock. Further studies are needed to confirm our observed clinical efficacy.

The risks from potential exposure to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and resource reallocation that has occurred to combat the pandemic, have altered the balance of benefits and harms that informed current (pre-COVID-19) guideline recommendations for lung cancer screening and lung nodule evaluation. Consensus statements were developed to guide clinicians managing lung cancer screening programs and patients with lung nodules during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Black smokers have earlier development of lung disease as well as poorer sleep health than whites.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has affected virtually all aspects of patient care. Health-care systems around the world are trying simultaneously to treat patients with COVID-19, prepare for its long-term impacts, and treat patients with other acute and chronic diseases. There are multiple ways that the COVID-19 pandemic will directly affect patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD), particularly given their common risk factors for poor outcomes. Major issues for patients with ILD will include restricted access to key components of the diagnostic process, new uncertainties in the use of common ILD pharmacotherapies, limited ability to monitor both disease severity and the presence of medication adverse effects, and significantly curtailed research activities. The purpose of this review is to summarize how COVID-19 has impacted key components of the diagnosis and management of fibrotic ILD as well as to provide strategies to mitigate these challenges. We further review major obstacles for researchers and identify priority areas for future ILD research related to COVID-19. Our goals are to provide practical considerations to support the care of patients with ILD during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide a road map for clinicians caring for these patients during future infectious disease outbreaks.