Saviour tool now a foreign body.

ABSTRACT: Foreign bodies are commonly seen in children, here presenting a case of a male adult with an impacted thumb pin in the left lower lobe bronchus. Extraction required fiber-optic bronchoscopy, failure of which led to thoracotomy with bronchotomy.

Acute Exacerbation of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis With Pirfenidone and Nintedanib: A Friend or Foe.

Acute exacerbation (AE) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is unfortunate a deadly event with a very high mortality rate. Its occurrence is highly unpredictable, though few baseline risk factors have been identified. The revised definition of AE is more precise with clarity on defined parameters. However, no clear guidelines exist on treatment, with most therapies showing inconsistent benefits. Both the approved anti-fibrotic (pirfenidone and nintedanib) have shown equal efficacy in reducing the decline in lung functions, with few studies suggesting a drop in AE. We report a case of a patient with IPF with mildly impaired lung functions who was initiated on pirfenidone with dose titrated on a weekly basis but developed AE-IPF on day 10 of starting pirfenidone and after four days of doubling the dose from 600 mg/day to 1,200 mg/day. This raised the suspicion of whether pirfenidone played any role in this unfortunate event. With no response to conventional therapy of steroids and non-invasive ventilation for AE-IPF, initialization of nintedanib led to recovery with discharge of the patient in two weeks of hospitalization. This case highlights inadequacy in knowledge about the effects of these anti-fibrotics in IPF and recommends close monitoring in the future.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac comorbidities: A cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a global health issue with cigarette smoking being an important risk factor. COPD affects pulmonary blood vessels, right ventricle, as well as left ventricle leading to the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH), cor-pulmonale (COR-P), right and left ventricular dysfunction. Echocardiography provides a rapid, noninvasive, portable, and accurate method to evaluate cardiac functions. Early diagnoses and intervention for cardiac comorbidities would reduce mortalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study. Total 50 patients of moderate to severe COPD according to GOLD guidelines were taken from Department of Respiratory Medicine, Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Vadodara. All patients underwent investigations such as chest X-ray PA view, ECG, and spirometry followed by two-dimensional echocardiography. RESULTS: We investigated 49 males and 1 female patients ranging from 35 to 80 years of age. Twenty-nine individuals were of moderate COPD and twenty-one of severe COPD. Of these cases 29 had left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) changes, 24 were diagnosed with PH and 16 had changes of COR-P. The study showed the linear relation between the severity of LVDD, PH, and COR-P with the severity of COPD. CONCLUSION: Our study put emphasis on early cardiac screening of all COPD patients which will be helpful in the assessment of the prognosis and will further assist in identifying the individuals likely to suffer increase morbidity and mortality.