Pneumothorax is a major complication after endoscopic lung volume reduction with valves, with a prevalence of up to 34%. Although some patients benefit from valve implantation despite pneumothorax, others are significantly impaired after lung collapse.

Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic multiorgan disease with variable clinical outcomes. Comprehensive analysis of sarcoidosis mortality in US veterans is lacking.

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) represent a broad group of heterogeneous parenchymal lung diseases. Some ILDs progress, causing architectural distortion and pulmonary fibrosis, and thus are called fibrotic ILDs. Recent studies have shown a beneficial effect of antifibrotic therapy in fibrotic ILDs other than idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that manifest progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF). However, it remains challenging to predict which patients with fibrotic ILDs will demonstrate PPF. Precision medicine approaches could identify patients at risk for progression and guide treatment in patients with IPF or PPF.

Parasitic infections in the United States are mostly seen in immigrants and travelers. In many cases, pulmonary and intensive care physicians fail to consider parasitic disease, which can result in delayed diagnosis and adverse outcomes. Almost 2,000 cases of imported malaria are diagnosed in the United States each year. Severe cases can be confused with bacterial sepsis (shock, lactic acidosis, pneumonia, renal failure, respiratory failure, and jaundice). In contrast to bacterial sepsis, survival is improved by restrictive fluid therapy. Parenteral artesunate is licensed to treat severe cases but may not be readily accessible. Strongyloidiasis is endemic in warm and most tropical regions. Chronic strongyloidiasis causes few symptoms and can persist for decades after the patient leaves the endemic region. Treatment with corticosteroids may lead to hyperinfection, which may present with bacteremia and meningitis caused by enteric organisms, pulmonary hemorrhage, and gastrointestinal pain, bleeding, or obstruction. Treatment with ivermectin can be curative if initiated early. Cystic echinococcosis can present as pulmonary mass. Paragonimus presents with hemoptysis, pulmonary nodules, or pleural effusions, and usually with eosinophilia. Endemic regions include not only East Asia but also Southeast Asia, West Africa, the Pacific coast of Latin America, and even North America. Other parasitic infections can involve the lungs. This article aims to provide awareness of the most clinically relevant parasitic infections seen in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Guidelines advise minimizing asthma exacerbation risk, which is achieved partially through good clinical practice activities, including scheduled asthma reviews, inhaler technique checks, and asthma management plans. We assessed how frequently these activities are provided and how effective they are in clinical practice.

Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may experience insomnia and use hypnotics. However, the effect of the use of hypnotics on their clinical course remains unclear.

Evaluating expiratory airway function in infants is challenging because the criterion standard, the raised-volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique, is technically difficult and has a high failure rate.

Treatment for lung cancer can improve prognosis, but 5-year survival remains low at 26%. An examination of treatment using data with higher population coverage, and among a broader number of treatment modalities and individual characteristics, would provide greater insight into differences in lung cancer treatment.

Lower respiratory tract infections are common in patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in an ICU after an acute brain injury and may have deleterious consequences.

COPD management is guided by the respiratory symptom burden, assessed using the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale, the COPD Assessment Test (CAT), or both.

A 72-year-old man with metastatic pancreatic cancer was admitted to the ICU with increased oxygen demand and confusion, likely related to pulmonary metastases. In the presence of his son, the health care agent, and the team, the patient requested to be do not attempt resuscitation and do not intubate status before losing decision-making capacity. When the patient's brother and another son heard of the code status change, they insisted on a return to Full Code. Although the youngest son (the health care agent) was present for the patient's request to be do not attempt resuscitation/do not intubate, he declined to represent the patient's wishes and agreed with a return to Full Code. Numerous discussions over subsequent days revolved around the attempt to honor the patient's wishes in the setting of the surrogate's unwillingness or inability to make decisions in alignment with his father's wishes. This case reviews and analyzes the ethical options available to the clinical team in responding to requests for potentially inappropriate treatment at a patient's end of life and explores the roles of relational autonomy, beneficence vs nonmaleficence, and holding the balance of clinicians' and ethicists' professional, legal, and ethical responsibilities.

The serum antiglycopeptidolipid core IgA antibody test has been proposed as a diagnostic tool for Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary diseases. Cross-reactivity with other nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), including Mycobacterium abscessus, indicates that it may have a role as a broader screening test for nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD). NTM-PD is believed to be underdiagnosed in patients with bronchiectasis.