BACKGROUND Epidemiological and pedigree studies suggest that lung cancer results from the combined effects of age, smoking, impaired lung function and genetic factors. In a case control association study of healthy smokers and lung cancer cases, we identified genetic markers associated with either susceptibility or protection to lung cancer. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We screened 157 cand...

A lung-protective ventilator strategy significantly reduces mortality in patients with acute lung injury. Substantial progress has been made in understanding how mechanical stress can injure the lung, both in terms of alterations in barrier properties of the pulmonary endothelium and epithelium as well as in stimulating proinflammatory responses of macrophages and neutrophils.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a devastating disease that causes substantial morbidity and mortality. Mechanical ventilation can worsen lung injury, whereas ventilatory strategies that reduce lung stretch, resulting in a "permissive" hypercapnic acidosis (HCA), improve outcome. HCA directly reduces nonsepsis-induced lung injury in preclinical models and, therefore, has therapeutic poten...

BACKGROUND Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving intervention in acute respiratory failure without any alternative. However, even protective ventilation strategies applying minimal mechanical stress may evoke ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Adjuvant pharmacological strategies in addition to lung-protective ventilation to attenuate VILI are lacking. Adrenomedullin exhibited endothe...

Advances in pediatric medical practices often lag behind the progress made in adult patients, primarily because of the limited number of randomized, controlled, clinical trials. Recent advances in mechanical ventilation derived from successful application in adults include neurally adjusted ventilatory assist, noninvasive ventilation, and protective lung strategies. NAVA improves patient/ venti...

RATIONALE Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, fatal lung disease. While it has been suggested that T cells may contribute to IPF pathogenesis, these studies have focused primarily on T cells outside of the pulmonary interstitium. Thus, the role of T cells in the diseased lung tissue remains unclear. OBJECTIVE To identify whether specific CD4+ T cell subsets are differentiall...

In traditional Chinese medicine, Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (danshen) is widely used in the treatment of numerous cancers. However, its clinical effort and mechanism in the treatment of advanced lung cancer are unclear. In our study, the in vivo protective effort of danshen in patients with advanced lung cancer were validated using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Tai...

Ventilation needs to be individualized for the underlying • lung pathology. Ventilation is a modifiable risk factor for acute lung injury. • Protective lung ventilation is a combination of small tidal • volumes, low peak and plateau pressures, routine PEEP and permissive hypercapnea. Hypoxia during one-lung ventilation is rare and often sec• ondary to alveolar de-recruitment in the face of hypo...