Amiodarone, bi-iodinated benzofuran derivative, is one of the most frequently prescribed and efficacious antiarrhythmic drugs. Despite its low incidence, amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity is of great concern and the leading cause of discontinuation. Autophagy is an essential homeostatic process that mediates continuous recycling of intracellular materials when nutrients are scarce. It eithe...

This article presents a regression-tree-based meta-analysis of rodent pulmonary toxicity studies of uncoated, nonfunctionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) exposure. The resulting analysis provides quantitative estimates of the contribution of CNT attributes (impurities, physical dimensions, and aggregation) to pulmonary toxicity indicators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid: neutrophil and macrophage c...

Reactive oxidizing species are implicated in the etiology of a range of inhalational pulmonary injuries. Consequently, various free radical scavengers have been tested as potential prophylactic agents. The sulfydryl compound, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is the only such compound clinically available for use in realistic dosages, and it is well established as an effective antidote for the hepatic and...

Pulmonary toxicity developed in 15 (17%) of 89 patients treated with amiodarone during a follow-up period of 2 weeks to 54 (mean 20 +/- 15) months. Prospective evaluation of serial pulmonary function tests in 67 patients demonstrated both a significant decrease from baseline in three of six variables in patients with toxicity at the time of diagnosis and a significant difference compared with t...

PURPOSE We have shown the feasibility of administering inhaled doxorubicin to patients with cancer. This study evaluated inhaled doxorubicin combined with cisplatin and docetaxel in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The principal objective was to determine safety and, secondarily, efficacy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Patients who had chemo-naïve advanced non-small cell lung cancer were enrol...

Pulmonary physicians are well aware of drug-induced acute and chronic pulmonary toxicities; inhaled or systemically administered drugs can affect airway tone and cause cough, dyspnoea due to airspace disease, diffuse alveolar damage, pulmonary capillaritis or interstitial lung fibrosis, to name a few presentations and tissue manifestations. Well-studied drugs that cause pulmonary toxicity inclu...