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Pneumonia
Published in Charles Theisler, Adjuvant Medical Care, 2023
Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lung parenchyma (alveoli, alveolar ducts, and bronchioles) that can cause mild to severe illness in people of all ages. Most often an infection inflames lung tissue and the small air sacs, or alveoli, inside the lungs which fill up with fluid and/or purulent material (pus) reducing oxygen intake. Pneumonia is a major public health problem in the elderly in general and especially in nursing home (NH) residents. It is also the leading infectious cause of death in children less than five years old.1 Symptoms, which can vary from mild to serious, can include productive cough, fever, chills, chest pain, hemoptysis, and difficulty breathing. Complications include lung abscesses, ARDS, pleural effusions, empyema, and pleurisy. Overwhelming sepsis is potentially a lethal complication.
Identifying Possible Scenarios Where a Deep Learning Auto-Segmentation Model Could Fail
Published in Jinzhong Yang, Gregory C. Sharp, Mark J. Gooding, Auto-Segmentation for Radiation Oncology, 2021
Atelectasis and pleural effusions are not uncommon in cancer patients, with some studies reporting 7–22% of lung cancer patients presenting with these conditions prior to the start of treatment [visual inspection of challenge training data showed that 5/36 (14%) of cases showed signs of atelectasis (LCTSC-S1-008, LCTSC-S1-011, LCTSC-S3-005, LCTSC-S3-008, and LCTSC-S3-012)]. Atelectasis is a condition in which the airways and air sacs in the lung collapse or do not expand properly. This condition can happen in the presence of a tumor or because of a pleural effusion which is a condition that affects the tissue that covers the outside of the lungs and lines the inside of the chest cavity. These occur when an infection, medical condition, or chest injury causes fluid, pus, blood, air, or other gases to build up in the pleural space. Both atelectasis and pleural effusions can greatly alter the anatomy within the thorax; therefore, the auto-segmented organs at risk in cases presenting with these conditions were qualitatively evaluated.
Respiratory Diseases
Published in Amy J. Litterini, Christopher M. Wilson, Physical Activity and Rehabilitation in Life-threatening Illness, 2021
Amy J. Litterini, Christopher M. Wilson
COPD, previously known as emphysema, is a life-threatening respiratory diagnosis characterized by chronic inflammation and obstruction of the alveoli, or air sacs, of the lungs. COPD is considered a combination of those diagnosed with emphysema, an abnormal accumulation of air secondary to damaged and scarred alveoli, and chronic bronchitis, or inflammation of the mucous membranes of the bronchial tubes. For individuals presenting with symptoms such as cough, sputum production, dyspnea, and/or exposure to known risk factors, a formal diagnosis of COPD is made via spirometry. Confirmatory results of spirometry include measurements of forced vital capacity (FVC), the total volume during exhalation, as well as the volume of air exhaled in the first second, known as the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). COPD is then staged from 1 (mild) to 4 (severe), where results of spirometry are compared to normative values to distinguish staging and monitor the status of disease.
Emerging strategies in nanotechnology to treat respiratory tract infections: realizing current trends for future clinical perspectives
Published in Drug Delivery, 2022
Minhua Chen, Zhangxuan Shou, Xue Jin, Yingjun Chen
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lungs which affect primarily lung air sacs (alveoli). Alveolar spaces are occupied by pus and fluid which distress breathing and confine oxygen uptake. The lesions appear inside alveoli, often associated with buds of granulation tissue that inhibit the bronchiolar lumen resulting in lung abrasions (Al-Tubaikh, 2010). Many etiological agents are accountable for pneumonia including pathogenic bacteria; S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, S. aureus, gram-negative bacilli, M. pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanni, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and opportunistic fungi that reach alveoli by micro aspiration of oropharynges secretion (Sanivarapu & Gibson, 2021). Certain viruses, i.e. coronavirus, adenoviruses, influenza virus, and respiratory syncytial viruses are also responsible for the spread of viral pneumonia (Muhammad et al., 2022). The therapy is initiated after the conformation of an etiological agent and the severity of the disease then the treatment starts in a rational way to treat the development of these resistant strains. However, the current treatment of pneumonia is ineffective due to adverse toxic effects related to antibiotics (vancomycin) and inefficient effects against multidrug resistance (B. Kim et al., 2018). Therefore, nanotechnology is an emerging technique to overcome hurdles in this regulatory fatal infection (Figure 2).
Advances and challenges in nintedanib drug delivery
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2021
Varalakshmi Velagacherla, Akhil Suresh, Chetan H Mehta, Usha Y Nayak
Excessive loss of organ functions, altering tissue structure, remodeling of original tissue present in lungs, and improper functioning of endothelial cells can be observed in S.Sc-I.L.D. The causes of this disease are unknown, and it might be due to genetic alterations. Mostly, S.Sc-I.L.D is seen in aged people and it may affect heart conditions. The mortality rate is high in the patients who are suffering from this disease. It affects the region around air sacs of the lungs and the space present outside the tissues [15,17]. The overall incidence rate of S.Sc is one in 10,000 individuals worldwide [10,17]. The clinical management of patients with S.Sc-I.L.D is given in Table 3. Depending upon the results obtained from clinical trials conducted on 576 patients with S.Sc-I.L.D, N.T.B has shown beneficiary effects in treating S.Sc-I.L.D and decreases progression of disease in contempt to cyclophosphamide/M.M.F. N.T.B is the alternative source of drug in S.Sc-I.L.D and helps in patients who are not responding to the treatment with cyclophosphamide/M.M.F. In the first year of S.Sc-I.L.D disease where the mortality rate is more, N.T.B is mostly prescribed [17]. N.T.B is the only F.D.A-approved drug available for the treatment of S.Sc-I.L.D, while high dose and poor oral bioavailability stand as disadvantages.
Biochemical and immunological aspects of COVID-19 infection and therapeutical intervention of oral low dose cytokine therapy: a systematic review
Published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 2021
Ratheesh M, Sheethal S, Svenia P. Jose, Sony Rajan, Sulumol Thomas, Tariq Jagmag, Jayesh Tilwani
The pathogenesis is still unclear and in most of the patients, the virus is found infecting the lungs, thereby causing respiratory diseases. Studies have reported that the pathophysiology of ARDS caused by COVID-19 is due to the disruption of the blood-air barrier in the alveolar sacs. As a result, the plasma enters the air sacs and causes a sudden increase in immune reaction and also attracts inflammatory cells such as monocytes and neutrophils, resulting in the excessive infiltration of inflammatory cells into the lungs and causing damage to the lungs. This damage is the result of viral attack along with the overexpression of immune cells [5]. Even though it is a protective mechanism to destroy the invading virus, it has a deleterious end-result on the body. Some other under recognized conditions of COVID-19 infections such as secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, hyper-inflammatory syndrome with hyper-cytokinaemia, lead to multiple organ failure associated with hyper-ferritinaemia [6]. Thus, based on the reports and studies conducted so far, the dangerous impact of this virus is due to immune dysfunction [5].