ABSTRACT
Hemoptysis is one of the most important and challenging symptoms in pulmonary medicine, Because of the increased number of patients with hemoptysis in certain periods of the year, we aimed to investigate whether atmospheric changes have an effect on the development of hemoptysis with or without a secondary cause. The data of patients presenting with hemoptysis between January 2006 and December 2011 were analyzed. Data on the daily atmospheric pressure [hectopascal, hPa], relative humidity [%], and temperature [°C] during that time were obtained. A total of 232 patients with hemoptysis, 145 male [62.5%] and 87 female [37.5%] with an average age of 48.1 [+/- 17.6], were admitted to our hospital between 2006 and 2011. The highest admission rates were in the spring season, the highest in May [n=37, 15.9%], and the lowest admission rates were in December [n=10, 4.3%]. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the number of hemoptysis cases and mean atmospheric pressure but no relative humidity or outdoor temperature. Hemoptysis is very much influenced by weather factors; in particular, low atmospheric pressures significantly affect the development of hemoptysis. Fluctuations in atmospheric pressure may also play a role in hemoptysis
ABSTRACT
The aim of our study was to determine whether or not dynamic magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] with kinetic and morphological parameters can reveal significant differences between malignant and benign pulmonary lesions, and thus to evaluate the use of dynamic MRI in the management of pulmonary nodules. Thirty-one patients [4 women and 27 men] underwent 1.5 T MRI, where 10 consecutive dynamic series were performed every 30 s by using 3D fast low-angle shot sequences. The percentage increase in the signal intensity of the lesions was determined for each time point. Time-enhancement curves of the lesions were drawn and classified into four types: A, B, C and D. Early peak [EP] and maximum peak [MP] values of the curves were calculated and compared with the diagnoses of the patients. The usefulness of these parameters was tested statistically. In addition to the comparison of the parameters between the groups, receiver-operating characteristic analysis was used to assess sensitivity, specificity, and both positive and negative predictive values of EP and MP parameters. Of the 31 pulmonary lesions, 16 [52%] were malignant. These showed a stronger enhancement with higher median values of EP and MP [77.08 and 123.15, respectively] than those corresponding to the benign lesions [14.45 and 32.53, respectively]. There were significant differences between the benign and malignant lesions [p < 0.001]. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 75,93,92 and 78% for EP and 93, 86, 88 and 93% for MP, respectively. A combination of kinetic and morphological evaluation in dynamic MRI provided accurate differentiation between benign and malignant pulmonary lesions. It was a useful and noninvasive method of evaluating pulmonary nodules