An 80-year-old woman with increasing dyspnea and extensive pulmonary opacities while receiving a decreasing prednisone dose for polymyalgia rheumatica

Article Abstract:

A case report is presented of an 80-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital with difficult breathing, a cough, and an abnormal chest X-ray. Ten months earlier, the patient had developed stiffness and aching, and was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica, a syndrome associated with these symptoms. She began to take prednisone (a corticosteroid), but had started to reduce the dose six weeks before the current hospital admission. The patient smoked one pack of cigarettes daily for 40 years. Several blood cultures were grown and evaluated while the patient was hospitalized. A discussion is presented of the possible infectious or malignant causes of the abnormal X-ray results, which became more abnormal as the disease progressed. A lung biopsy was performed, resulting in a diagnosis of usual interstitial pneumonitis, a chronic condition characterized by fibrosis, which does not respond to antibiotics. The patient died on the tenth day of hospitalization. This case may be the first to be described in which usual interstitial pneumonitis was associated with polymyalgia rheumatica. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Case studies, Physiological aspects, Development and progression, Pulmonary fibrosis, Polymyalgia rheumatica

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The body-mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea and exercise capacity index in Chronic Obstruction Pulmonary Disease

Article Abstract:

A BODE index, a simple multidimensional grading system, was constructed on the basis that four factors predicted the risk of death in patients with chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD), the body-mass index (B), the degree of airflow construction(O), dyspnea(D), and exercise capacity(E). After a trial done on 207 patients, it was concluded that the BODE index is better than the previous methods at predicting the risk factors causing death in patients with COPD.

Management dynamics, Evaluation, Patient outcomes, Practice, Clinical trials, Lung diseases, Obstructive, Chronic obstructive lung disease, Risk factors (Health)

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Prognostic significance of dyspnea in patients referred for cardiac stress testing

Article Abstract:

Various patients are examined to investigate the prognostic significance of a common symptom dyspnea among patients consulting for cardiac stress check-up. The study reveals that a subgroup of otherwise asymptomatic patients who reported dyspnea were in great danger of death from cardiac or other causes, and hence testing for dyspnea is considered necessary while examining cardiac patients.

United Kingdom, Science & research, Research, Diagnosis, Medical examination, Cardiac patients, Shortness of breath, Dyspnea

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