NCCP-ICS joint consensus-based clinical practice guidelines on medical thoracoscopy.

ABSTRACT: Medical Thoracoscopy (MT) is commonly performed by respiratory physicians for diagnostic as well as therapeutic purposes. The aim of the study was to provide evidence-based information regarding all aspects of MT, both as a diagnostic tool and therapeutic aid for pulmonologists across India. The consensus-based guidelines were formulated based on a multistep process using a set of 31 questions. A systematic search of published randomized controlled clinical trials, open labelled studies, case reports and guidelines from electronic databases, like PubMed, EmBase and Cochrane, was performed. The modified grade system was used (1, 2, 3 or usual practice point) to classify the quality of available evidence. Then, a multitude of factors were taken into account, such as volume of evidence, applicability and practicality for implementation to the target population and then strength of recommendation was finalized. MT helps to improve diagnosis and patient management, with reduced risk of post procedure complications. Trainees should perform at least 20 medical thoracoscopy procedures. The diagnostic yield of both rigid and semirigid techniques is comparable. Sterile-graded talc is the ideal agent for chemical pleurodesis. The consensus statement will help pulmonologists to adopt best evidence-based practices during MT for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Management of interstitial lung diseases: A consensus statement of the Indian Chest Society (ICS) and National College of Chest Physicians (NCCP).

BACKGROUND: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a complex and heterogeneous group of acute and chronic lung diseases of several known and unknown causes. While clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been recently updated, CPG for ILD other than IPF are needed. METHODS: A working group of multidisciplinary clinicians familiar with clinical management of ILD (pulmonologists, radiologist, pathologist, and rheumatologist) and three epidemiologists selected by the leaderships of Indian Chest Society and National College of Chest Physicians, India, posed questions to address the clinically relevant situation. A systematic search was performed on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases. A modified GRADE approach was used to grade the evidence. The working group discussed the evidence and reached a consensus of opinions for each question following face-to-face discussions. RESULTS: Statements have been made for each specific question and the grade of evidence has been provided after performing a systematic review of literature. For most of the questions addressed, the available evidence was insufficient and of low to very low quality. The consensus of the opinions of the working group has been presented as statements for the questions and not as an evidence-based CPG for the management of ILD. CONCLUSION: This document provides the guidelines made by consensus of opinions among experts following discussion of systematic review of evidence pertaining to the specific questions for management of ILD other than IPF. It is hoped that this document will help the clinician understand the accumulated evidence and help better management of idiopathic and nonidiopathic interstitial pneumonias.

Management of interstitial lung diseases: A consensus statement of the Indian Chest Society (ICS) and National College of Chest Physicians (NCCP)

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a complex and heterogeneous group of acute and chronic lung diseases of several known and unknown causes. While clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been recently updated, CPG for ILD other than IPF are needed. Methods: A working group of multidisciplinary clinicians familiar with clinical management of ILD (pulmonologists, radiologist, pathologist, and rheumatologist) and three epidemiologists selected by the leaderships of Indian Chest Society and National College of Chest Physicians, India, posed questions to address the clinically relevant situation. A systematic search was performed on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases. A modified GRADE approach was used to grade the evidence. The working group discussed the evidence and reached a consensus of opinions for each question following face-to-face discussions. Results: Statements have been made for each specific question and the grade of evidence has been provided after performing a systematic review of literature. For most of the questions addressed, the available evidence was insufficient and of low to very low quality. The consensus of the opinions of the working group has been presented as statements for the questions and not as an evidence-based CPG for the management of ILD. Conclusion: This document provides the guidelines made by consensus of opinions among experts following discussion of systematic review of evidence pertaining to the specific questions for management of ILD other than IPF. It is hoped that this document will help the clinician understand the accumulated evidence and help better management of idiopathic and nonidiopathic interstitial pneumonias.

Interstitial Lung Disease in India. Results of a Prospective Registry.

RATIONALE: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a heterogeneous group of acute and chronic inflammatory and fibrotic lung diseases. Existing ILD registries have had variable findings. Little is known about the clinical profile of ILDs in India. OBJECTIVES: To characterize new-onset ILDs in India by creating a prospective ILD using multidisciplinary discussion (MDD) to validate diagnoses. METHODS: Adult patients of Indian origin living in India with new-onset ILD (27 centers, 19 Indian cities, March 2012-June 2015) without malignancy or infection were included. All had connective tissue disease (CTD) serologies, spirometry, and high-resolution computed tomography chest. ILD pattern was defined by high-resolution computed tomography images. Three groups independently made diagnoses after review of clinical data including that from prompted case report forms: local site investigators, ILD experts at the National Data Coordinating Center (NDCC; Jaipur, India) with MDD, and experienced ILD experts at the Center for ILD (CILD; Seattle, WA) with MDD. Cohen's κ was used to assess reliability of interobserver agreement. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 1,084 patients were recruited. Final diagnosis: hypersensitivity pneumonitis in 47.3% (n = 513; exposure, 48.1% air coolers), CTD-ILD in 13.9%, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 13.7%. Cohen's κ: 0.351 site investigator/CILD, 0.519 site investigator/NDCC, and 0.618 NDCC/CILD. CONCLUSIONS: Hypersensitivity pneumonitis was the most common new-onset ILD in India, followed by CTD-ILD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; diagnoses varied between site investigators and CILD experts, emphasizing the value of MDD in ILD diagnosis. Prompted case report forms including environmental exposures in prospective registries will likely provide further insight into the etiology and management of ILD worldwide.

Assessing genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by spoligotyping and IS6110-based restriction fragment length polymorphism in North India.

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Molecular epidemiology methods are very useful for differentiating between strains, assessing their diversity, and measuring the prevalence of the most circulating strain in an area. Various molecular typing methods using different molecular markers have been utilized worldwide, such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), spoligotyping, Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit - Variable Number of Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR), and Double repetitive element-PCR (DRE-PCR) typing, for simultaneous detection and epidemiologic typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The present study is conducted to assess the genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis by IS6110-RFLP and spoligotyping in patients attending a tertiary care hospital in eastern Uttar Pradesh, North India. METHODS: A total of 83 representative isolates of M. tuberculosis were included in this study. These isolates were subjected to spoligotyping and IS6110-RFLP DNA fingerprinting techniques as described previously. RESULTS: The spoligotype patterns were compared with SpolDB4.0; patterns of 64 out of 83 M. tuberculosis isolates were matched with the available data, while 19 isolates were found to be orphan, that is, absent in the SpolDB4.0 database. The majority of the M. tuberculosis strains (56.5%) belong to central Asian (32.5%), ill defined T (13.2%), and Beijing (10.8%) families. On IS6110-RFLP analysis, in 19.2% (16/83) of these isolates, IS6110 element was not found (0 copy number strains). Further, 15.6% (13/83) isolates were found to be low-copy-number strains having less than six copies of IS6110 element, and the remaining 65.0% (54/83) were multiple-copy-number strains with six or more copies of the element. On comparing the results of spoligotyping and IS-6110-RFLP, a total of 47 isolates were clustered by spoligotyping; out of these isolates, 40 were found to be unique by IS6110-RFLP. CONCLUSION: Spoligotype analysis resulted in the grouping of a much larger number of isolates within apparently identical clusters compared with IS6110-RFLP typing, while IS6110-RFLP was not found to effectively distinguish between zero- and low-copy-number isolates. Therefore, we concluded that, in India, the use of both the techniques simultaneously for DNA fingerprinting of M. tuberculosis could be a better approach.

Primary/local hepatic tuberculosis without dissemination.

We present a rare case of primary hepatic tuberculosis in a 50-year-old man who presented with pain at the right hypochondrium. The diagnosis was established by fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the primary hepatic lesions in both lobes of the liver, which was further supported by histopathological examination and tissue PCR for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the FNAC specimens.

Tuberculosis of the triceps muscle.

A tubercular swelling of the triceps muscle in a 25-year-old immunocompetent man is described in this report. He presented with hard, fixed swelling at the lower end of the triceps muscle. Confirmatory diagnosis was established by fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the swelling with subsequent PCR for Mycobacterium tuberculosis of the FNAC specimen. The patient was completely cured with antitubercular therapy.

Surgical and bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most extensively studied and researched disease in pulmonology and a cause of significant morbidity, mortality, and financial burden on patient's family and country's economy. Its management continues to be a challenge to both the physician and the patient's family. So far, it is preventable and treatable but not curable. Emphysema, a phenotype of COPD, is the most debilitating condition associated with progressive exercise intolerance and severe dyspnea. Despite decades of research, medical treatments available so far have helped improve quality of life and slowed down the decline in respiratory function but did not significantly improve the survival benefits. Though surgical lung volume reduction (LVR) procedures have shown some promise in context to functional gains and survival but, only in a carefully selected group of patients, bronchoscopic LVR procedures are yet to explore their full potential and limitations. This paper retrospectively studied the developments so far, medical and surgical, with special emphasis on the bronchoscopic procedures of lung volume reduction, and tried to comparatively analyze the risks and benefits of each one of them through various trials and studies done to date.

Primary and acquired drug resistance patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in India: a multicenter study.

Tuberculosis is the most prevalent infection worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) isolates emphasizes that it is necessary to monitor drug resistance of the organism against anti-tubercular drugs. We analyzed 327 M. tuberculosis isolates from patients who were cared for at three different health care centers, hereinafter known as study areas (SAs), in North India. Of the 327 total M. tuberculosis isolates, 255 were from a tertiary health care center (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh [SA-1]), 48 were from a District tuberculosis center (Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan [SA-2]), and 24 were from a different District tuberculosis center (Buxar, Bihar [SA-3]). Drug susceptibility testing against first-line antibiotics (viz. isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin, and ethambutol) was conducted for all the isolates using 1% proportional method. We found that the rates of acquired resistance were consistently higher than the rates of initial drug resistance. In new, untreated cases, a higher degree of MDR-TB was observed at SA-1 (13.3%) and SA-3 (25.0%), whereas it was observed in only 7.1% of the isolates at SA-2. In previously treated patients, MDR cases were found in 35.7% of the isolates from SA-1, 66.6% of the isolates from SA-2, and 43.8% of the isolates from SA-3. Resistance to a single drug was found at a much lower rate, ranging from 0.0 to 6.3% in new cases as well as previously treated cases. In conclusion, the primary resistance of M. tuberculosis is low, but acquired drug resistance is slightly higher in North India.

Molecular characterization of INH-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates by PCR-RFLP and multiplex-PCR in North India.

In the present study, among 327 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates collected from patients attending three different centres of North India, we attempted to find out the most common mutations occurring both at the Ser315 codon of katG and at the regulatory region of the mabA-inhA operon to evaluate their role for INH drug resistance in India. Out of 121 phenotypically INH-resistant MTB isolates, 88 (72.7%) were resistant to INH by genotypic methods viz., PCR-RFLP with MspI and SatI digestion and multiplex-PCR. PCR-RFLP results showed that 67 (55.4%) isolates had mutation in codon 315 of katG by SatI endonuclease. Among these, eight isolates that were found resistant by SatI PCR-RFLP were found to be sensitive by MspI PCR-RFLP. By multiplex-PCR we found 49 (40.5%), 21 (17.4%) and 10 (8.3%) isolates having AGC-->ACC substitution in katG only, mutation in inhA(C-15T) only and mutation in both respectively. Simultaneous use of both PCR-RFLP and multiplex-PCR can improve the detection rate of INH-resistant strains and may have an advantage over the liquid culture system of detecting drug resistance. These findings also enhanced our understanding about potential of resistance-related mutations in M. tuberculosis clinical isolates in India and could help in development and designing of molecular methods for revealing the drug susceptibility profiles of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates.

Role of spoligotyping and IS6110-RFLP in assessing genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in India.

In the present study, genetic diversity analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from patients attending a tertiary care hospital, North India, has been attempted. Eighty three isolates of M. tuberculosis were subjected to DNA fingerprinting using spoligotyping and IS6110-RFLP techniques. Spoligotype patterns showed that central Asian (32.5%), ill defined T (13.2%) and Beijing (10.8%) families were predominant in ongoing transmission of the bacterium. Two STs; ST26 (CAS_Delhi) and ST1 (Beijing) represented 36.1% of the total M. tuberculosis population in eastern Uttar Pradesh, North India. IS6110 RFLP analysis showed that isolates having low and zero copy number of the IS element were 15.6% and 19.2%, respectively. Out of the 47 isolates clustered by spoligotyping, 40 could be further differentiated as unique strains by IS6110-RFLP. Therefore, this study recommends that both the techniques be used simultaneously for DNA fingerprinting of M. tuberculosis in India.