News • Unified framework
Establishing a global standard in sepsis and critical care
The heterogeneity of critical illnesses like sepsis, ARDS, and trauma creates immense challenges. A new, unified way to classify patients aims to improve treatment.
Search for: "respiratory distress" - 52 articles found
News • Genomics
Chronic cough: study points to neurological mechanisms
Chronic cough affects approximately 1 in 10 adults in the UK, but the causes are often unknown and treatment options limited. Now, a new study has identified neurological mechanisms as key drivers.
News • Generation of alveolar epithelial type I cells
Study furthers understanding of lung regeneration
Researchers present a new method for generating human alveolar epithelial type I cells. This could ultimately progress therapies for people living with pulmonary diseases.
Article • ICU response to the Covid-19 surge
Tele-delivery of respiratory therapy services: a resounding success
In their pursuit of solutions for pandemic challenges, a US hospital system applied telemedicine principles to respiratory therapy – with impressive results.
News • Organ transplantation
New treatment could improve donor lung availability
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Skåne University Hospital have conducted an animal study bringing hope that more donor lungs could be used in the future.
News • Transplantation
Reduced the cytokine levels for more donor lungs
An animal study brings hope that more donor lungs could be used in the future. The researchers have launched a pilot study to investigate whether the treatment will have the same positive effects on human beings.
News • Greenhouse gas emissions
How climate change impacts human pathogenic diseases
A comprehensive assessment of scientific literature has uncovered empirical evidence that more than 58% of human diseases caused by pathogens, such as dengue, hepatitis, pneumonia, malaria, Zika, have been aggravated by climatic hazards.
Video • Coronavirus medication research
Lab-grown beating heart cells could identify Covid drugs
Scientists have grown beating heart cells to attempt to identify drugs to prevent Covid-19-related heart damage. Concerns over the extent of cardiac damage among Covid patients emerged during the coronavirus pandemic and there are also suggestions that the impact on cardiomyocytes could contribute to the symptoms of long Covid. To explore these issues, a research team at the University of…
News • Severe effects
How COVID-19 wreaks havoc on human lungs
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have published the first detailed atomic-level model of the SARS-CoV-2 "envelope" protein bound to a human protein essential for maintaining the lining of the lungs.
News • Intensive care support
AI predicts daily ICU trajectory for critical Covid-19 patients
Researchers used AI to identify which daily changing clinical parameters best predict intervention responses in critically ill Covid-19 patients. The investigators used machine learning to predict which patients might get worse and not respond positively to being turned onto their front in intensive care units (ICUs) - a technique known as proning that is commonly used in this setting to improve…
News • Coronavirus research
'Covid-19 atlas' uncovers differing immune responses in asymptomatic versus severe cases
The largest study of its kind in the UK has identified differences in the immune response to Covid-19 between people with no symptoms, compared to those suffering a more serious reaction to the virus. The research by Newcastle University and collaborators within the Human Cell Atlas initiative found raised levels of specific immune cells in asymptomatic people. They also showed people with more…
News • Intensive care
Protecting lungs from ventilation-induced injury
An unfortunate truth about the use of mechanical ventilation to save the lives of patients in respiratory distress is that the pressure used to inflate the lungs is likely to cause further lung damage. In a new study, scientists identified a molecule that is produced by immune cells during mechanical ventilation to try to decrease inflammation, but isn’t able to completely prevent…
News • Decreasing infection risk
Researchers develop touch-free vital signs monitor
Scientists at Heriot-Watt University have developed a technique that monitors a patient’s vital signs completely touch free. By using a continuous wave radar-based system to sense tiny chest movements, the new method can accurately measure an individual’s heart rate and respiratory rate without the need for wires, probes, wearable technology or other skin attachments. It could also identify…
Video • List by top clinicians and researchers
Top 10 medical innovations for 2021
An up-and-coming gene therapy for blood disorders. A new class of medications for cystic fibrosis. Increased access to telemedicine. These are some of the innovations that will enhance healing and change healthcare in the coming year, according to a distinguished panel of clinicians and researchers from Cleveland Clinic. In conjunction with the 2020 Medical Innovation Summit, Cleveland Clinic…
Article • POCT as initial coronavirus screening tool
Ultrasound confirms frontline value in COVID-19 setting
Ultrasound could become the prime modality in emergency settings for tracking disease progression in COVID-19 patients. While chest CT has held a key diagnostic role thus far, many experts now advocate the benefits of ultrasound within the context of the coronavirus epidemic. Dr Rachel Liu, who recently led a high-profile panel discussion with experts from the USA and areas of Europe with high…
Article • Modality comparison
COVID-19 imaging: lung ultrasound vs chest CT
A recent preprint study in France underpins the debate on whether lung ultrasound (LUS) should be used to triage COVID-19 patients better at the hospital as well as in primary care. The eChoVid study, published as a preliminary report of work on medTrix, shows that LUS enables identification of lung lesions as well as chest CT in COVID-19 patients. A team of French researchers compared routinely…
Article • Coronavirus in radiology
Why we need a global view of COVID-19
There are major complications from COVID-19 – ARDS, pulmonary embolism and neurological – that imaging can help detect, manage and/or follow up in the long term, radiologists from France and the UK explained during a recent ESR Connect session. ARDS is the most dreaded complication and the number one morbidity in COVID-19 patients. The incidence was up to 30% of patients in initial reports.…
News • Coronavirus research
How type 1 interferon deficiency hints at severe forms of COVID-19
Which patient will develop a severe form of COVID-19? This is an essential question which must be answered in order to improve the individual management and the prognosis of these patients. In a publication in the journal Science, teams from the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Inserm, Université de Paris, Institut Pasteur and Institut Imagine describe a unique and unexpected…
News • NET-like
Clues to COVID-19 complications come from inflammatory response
An overactive defense response may lead to increased blood clotting, disease severity, and death from COVID-19. A phenomenon called NETosi is part of an immune response that becomes increasingly hyperactive in people on ventilators and people who die from the disease.
News • Light or severe progression
The dangerous dual role of the immune system in COVID-19
Infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 follows a highly variable course: some of those infected do not even notice it, while others become so seriously ill that their lives are placed at risk. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and their colleagues from Leipzig and Heidelberg have now discovered that the immune system has a…
News • BTK inhibitor vs. respiratory distress
Off-label cancer drug shows promise against severe COVID-19
Early data from a clinical study suggest that blocking the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein provided clinical benefit to a small group of patients with severe COVID-19. Researchers observed that the off-label use of the cancer drug acalabrutinib, a BTK inhibitor that is approved to treat several blood cancers, was associated with reduced respiratory distress and a reduction in the overactive…
News • Deadly mechanism uncovered
Inside COVID-19's 'cytokine storm'
Leading immunologists in Japan are proposing a possible molecular mechanism that causes massive release of proinflammatory cytokines, or a cytokine storm, leading to the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 patients. Their suggestions, published in the journal Immunity, are based on recent findings that explain how SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells.
News • Coronavirus treatment
Can stem cells treat COVID-19?
Niels-Bjarne Woods, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has developed lung-specific mesenchymal stem cells to treat inflammation of the lungs and fibrosis. This research now may be the needed breakthrough for treatment of the severe respiratory issues related to COVID-19. A clinical study may soon be underway contingent on a successful application to the Swedish Medical Products Agency.…
News • COVID-19 and ARDS
Computer model of the lung enables protective ventilation
A computational lung model can be used to reduce damage caused by mechanical ventilation – and could increase survival rates for patients significantly.
News • Blood gas testing
Aiding COVID-19 efforts: FDA clearance for blood gas analyzer
Siemens Healthineers announced that its latest critical care testing solution, the RapidPoint 500e Blood Gas Analyzer, has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is now available in the U.S., Europe and countries requiring the CE mark. The analyzer generates blood gas, electrolyte, metabolite, CO-oximetry, and neonatal bilirubin results, which are used to…
Interview • Chest X-ray, CT and more
Imaging the coronavirus disease COVID-19
Chest X-ray is the first imaging method to diagnose COVID-19 coronavirus infection in Spain, but in the light of new evidence this may change soon, according to Milagros Martí de Gracia, Vice President of the Spanish Society of Radiology (SERAM) and head of the emergency radiology unit at La Paz Hospital in Madrid, one of the hot spots for viral re-production of COVID-19.
News • New ideas
MEDICA becomes number one trade fair for health start-ups
Healthcare is going digital worldwide at an incredibly rapid pace. More and more applications for prevention, diagnostics and therapy are being made into apps (with matching hardware) for smartphones and tablets or are even available as wearables for direct use on the body. Digitalisation is also striding forward in Germany, where doctors, therapists and patients still take a fairly analogue…
News • Terror protection
Promising vaccines against anthrax, plague and tularemia
Anthrax, plague and tularemia are three potent agents terrorists would be likely to use in an attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each is highly and quickly lethal to humans. But there are no licensed vaccines for tularemia and plague, and although there is an anthrax vaccine, it requires a burdensome immunization schedule and has severe side effects. Now, a…
News • Research support
Stem cell therapy for traumatic injury on the horizon
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has received funding through a public/private partnership for the first-ever clinical trial investigating a stem cell therapy for early treatment and prevention of complications after severe traumatic injury. The proposed Phase 2 trial is underwritten with $2 million from the Medical Technology Consortium (MTEC) and $1.5 million…
Sponsored • Artificial lungs
Easing ARDS and AECOPD
Innovative ‘artificial lungs’, which help the patients to breathe, offer less traumatic treatment for severe diseases such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD/AECOPD). Respiratory failure is one of the most frequent causes of ICU admission. It may occur inter alia in patients with ARDS, a dangerous condition when the respiratory system…
Article • The interdisciplinary challenge
Evaluating ICU care for cancer patients
Progressive treatments offer new chances for cancer patients, but also could result in as yet unknown complications. The number of cancer patients transferred to the ICU for cancer-specific and internal medicine related reasons is on the increase. Caring for them on the ICU is a complex challenge, with interdisciplinary cooperation playing an essential part. Certain criteria need to be met for…
Sponsored • Non-invasive sensors
Manometry v. BioBeat
A preliminary human study was conducted to validate an advanced wearable sensor which has been developed by the start-up company BioBeat Technologies Ltd, comparing it to the common manometry method. The 2015 guidelines of the European Society of Hypertension on The requirements of the International Protocol (revision 2010) were used to define the difference between the commonly used device and…
News • Bacteria
New discovery could change ICU care
No one knows for sure how they got there. But the discovery that bacteria that normally live in the gut can be detected in the lungs of critically ill people and animals could mean a lot for intensive care patients.
Sponsored • Respiratory support
Extracorporeal technology eases stress
Conventional therapy for ARDS patients and for patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has relied on invasive mechanical ventilation. Mechanical ventilation, however, has several major drawbacks: sedation has to be induced and the air being pressed into the lungs with positive pressure can damage the pulmonary alveoli or the diaphragm. Moreover, even maximum…
News • bacterial communities
What’s lurking in your lungs?
With every breath you take, microbes have a chance of making it into your lungs. But what happens when they get there? And why do dangerous lung infections like pneumonia happen in some people, but not others? Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School have started to answer these questions by studying the microbiome of the lungs – the community of microscopic organisms that are…
Critical care ventilation
The new Carescape R860 is an intuitive critical care ventilator that uses advanced lung protection tools and an innovative user interface to help improve patient care.
UK researchers focus on ventilator weaning techniques
Research being conducted in the United Kingdom is focusing on techniques to help improve the weaning process for patients coming off mechanical ventilation in hospital intensive care units. Report: Mark Nicholls
‘Huge progress’ in the ICU
You’ll find Élie Azoulay everywhere during this year’s International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM).
Optimising peri-operative procedures
Many physiological and observational studies indicate that non-invasive ventilation (NIV) after both thoracic and abdominal surgery is helpful and non-randomised trials have indeed confirmed the benefits.
Celebrating the 60th birthday of a fabulous lifesaver
This May it will be exactly 60 years since the first extracorporeal circulation device to temporarily replace heart/ lung function was successfully used in a clinical setting.
News • Anaesthesiology
Accidental awareness under general anaesthesia
A UK study has highlighted the issue of patients waking up from a general anaesthetic while undergoing surgery. The research, which questioned more than 7,100 consultant anaesthetists, revealed that there was about one episode of accidental awareness in every 15,000 general anaesthetics cases in the three million UK operations in 2011.
Reducing breath size and pressure from ICU ventilator increases long-term survival in people with acute lung injury
Carefully adjusting mechanical ventilator settings in the intensive care unit to pump smaller breaths into very sick lungs can reduce the chances of dying by as much as 8 percent, according to a study by critical care experts at Johns Hopkins. Study participants were evaluated for two years after their acute lung injury.
The 31st ISICEM
Jean-Louis Vincent, Chairman of the Dept of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, welcomes visitors to this year’s International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.
New children's medicine guide released by UNICEF and WHO
An estimated 9 million children die each year from preventable and treatable causes. A new publication that lists medicines formulated for children is being made available now online by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, to help doctors and organizations obtain some of the 240 essential medicines that can save the lives of children.
New cancer therapy to fight cardiovascular diseases?
New drugs that are helping fight a multi-front war on cancer may do the same for cardiovascular disease, Medical College of Georgia researchers said. Cancer and cardiovascular disease, both among top U.S. killers, share inflammation as a cause. Heat shock protein 90 inhibitors as a treatment could become additional common ground, said Dr. John Catravas, director of MCG's Vascular Biology Center.
Pneumonia research in Spain
In November 2009 about 150 leading infectious disease researchers gathered in Berlin for the National Forum for Innovation in Medicine. During the meeting, Professor Antoni Torres MD (Hospital Clinic-Ciberes, University of Barcelona) gave Meike Lerner insights into community acquired pneumonia research projects and findings
The 2009 Bernhard Dräger Award
Dr Vasilios Papaioannou, of the Democritus University of Thrace in Alexandroupoli, Greece, received the €15,000 Bernhard Dräger Award for Advanced Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure during the opening of The European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) annual conference in Vienna.
Public health puzzle - inequalities in health
In almost all of the industrialised countries, the general health status - as indicated for example by infant mortality, prevalence of disease, subjective health and life expectancy - has improved during the last four decades. At the same time, however, there is a proven close correlation between good and poor health and high and low socioeconomic status.
The contribution of the anaesthesiologist
Since its early beginnings in Europe, during the polio epidemics of the 1950s, intensive care medicine has grown to become a specialty in its own right and the intensive care unit (ICU) occupies an increasingly important position in every hospital. Intensive care doctors are responsible for the management of very sick patients often with multiple and complex disease processes, and ICUs are now…
The therapeutic potential of adult stem cells in CVDs
Cardiac infarction is characterised by tissue ischaemia with loss of contractile heart muscle.
Visualising the breathing lung
After previous meetings in the USA (2002) and Japan (2004), this October the 3rd International Workshop of Pulmonary Functional Imaging (IWPFI) took place in the German Cancer Research Centre, based in Heidelberg University, Germany. " 'The clinicians' need for earlier and more detailed diagnosis in pulmonary disease demands a joint interdisciplinary effort to push the limits in pulmonary…
Facing the future
Increase in COPD and chronic respiratory disease patients will challenge the European Healthcare Systems in the future.
