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Purpose: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNO) reduces the need for invasive mechanical ventilation in COVID-19 patients with hypoxemic-respiratory failure. During HFNO entrainment of room air dilutes the delivered fractional inspiratory oxygen (FiO2), thereby preventing improvement in oxygenation. The placement of a mask over HFNO to improve oxygenation has provided conflicting results. We aimed to determine and compare the effect of placing various mask types over HFNO on oxygen saturation (SPO2). Materials and methods: In this prospective physiological study 40 patients with COVID-19- associated hypoxemic respiratory failure on HFNO with O2 concentration <92% were included. The effect of placing different masks over HFNO on oxygenation, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, patient comfort, and partial pressure of carbon dioxide level (pCO2) was recorded after a prespecified time interval. Results: We observed a significantly higher mean SPO2 and lower mean respiratory rate on using various study masks over HFNO compared to HFNO alone. On comparing various mask types, the use of N95 masks and nonrebreather (NRB) masks with O2 showed a significant increase in O2 concentration and reduction in respiratory rate compared to surgical mask (SM) and NRB without O2. The proportion of patients who achieved SPO2 of >92% was higher with the use of N95 masks (47.5%) or NRB with O2 (45%) over HFNO compared to SM (35%) and NRB without O2 (35%). No significant change was observed in heart rate, blood pressure, and CO2 level with the use of any mask over HFNO. Conclusion: This study demonstrates improvement in oxygenation and reduction in respiratory rate with the use of various masks over HFNO in patients of COVID-19-related hypoxemicrespiratory-failure. Significantly greater benefit was achieved with the use of N95 or NRB with O2 compared to SM or NRB without O2
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Background: Exudative pleural effusions are commonly encountered in clinical practice, but in about one-fourth of cases, etiology remains elusive after initial evaluation. Medical thoracoscopy with semirigid thoracoscope is a minimally invasive procedure with high diagnostic yield for diagnosing pleural diseases, especially these undiagnosed exudative pleural effusions. In tubercular endemic areas, often, these effusions turn out to be tubercular, but the diagnosis of tubercular pleural effusion is quite challenging due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease. Although culture is the gold standard, it is time-consuming. Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) is a novel rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) and has been recommended as the initial diagnostic test in patients suspected of having extrapulmonary TB (EPTB). Materials and methods: We conducted a prospective observational study of 50 patients with undiagnosed pleural effusion admitted to our tertiary care hospital. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of CBNAAT on thoracoscopic guided pleural biopsy and compare it with conventional diagnostic techniques like histopathology and conventional culture. Results: Of 50 undiagnosed pleural effusions, TB (50%) was the most common etiology. The overall diagnostic yield of semirigid thoracoscopy in this study was 74%. Our study showed that CBNAAT of pleural biopsies had a sensitivity of 36% only but a specificity of 100%. The sensitivity of CBNAAT was not far superior to the conventional culture. Conclusion: Tuberculosis (TB) is a common cause of undiagnosed pleural effusion in our set-up. CBNAAT testing of pleural biopsy, though, is a poor rule-out test for pleural TB, but it may aid in the early diagnosis of such patients.
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Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in China, in December 2019, and was declared a pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020. The treatment is evolving and is mostly supportive in nature. Material and methods: This was a single-center retrospective study that included confirmed COVID-19 cases treated at our institute (a tertiary care hospital in Jammu and Kashmir, India), between March 2020 and December 2020. Patients with age more than 18 years were included in the study. Results: On evaluating the effect of various drug therapies used in management of COVID-19 patients of all severity, use of remdesivir and famotidine was associated with significantly higher odds of survival. In subgroup of patients with severe disease, use of systemic steroids was associated with significantly higher odds of survival in addition to remdesivir and famotidine. In patients with severe COVID-19 illness, likelihood of survival was significantly higher in those who received combination of systemic steroids plus remdesivir compared to steroids and remdesivir alone. Conclusion: Steroids were effective in severe COVID-19 illness and the combination of steroids and remdesivir was more effective in severe illness. There is a need to undertake more large scale prospective randomized trials to determine the most effective drug therapies to treat the sick patients and prevent worsening of mild cases.
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Background: Ultrasound (USG) guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a simple and cost-effective method for the diagnosis of various peripheral lung lesions. Being radiation free and easily available in most of centres, it has become an important diagnostic modality for early diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions. Besides procedure is simple and complications if occur, can be managed by a pulmonologist effectively. This study was aimed to evaluate the role of Transthoracic ultrasound guided FNAC in diagnosis of peripheral lung lesion.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at Government Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar over a period of one year from January 2018-December 2018. 61 patients who fulfilled inclusion criteria were included in this study. After properly explaining the procedure and taking informed consent, USG guided FNAC was done in patients with peripheral lung lesions under local anaesthesia. Radiological and cytological data of enrolled patients was collected prospectively and analysed.Result: About 61 patients were included in this study comprising of 39 males and 22 females in age range of 17- 90 years. Malignancy was the most common cytological diagnosis (78.57%). while as benign diagnosis was reached in 21.43%. In 8.19% of patients, FNAC was inconclusive. Among the malignant group, adenocarcinoma (47.72%) was most common cytological diagnosis. The overall diagnostic yield of USG guided FNAC in this study was 91.8%.Conclusion: USG guided FNAC of peripheral lung lesions is a simple procedure with high accuracy and less complication rate which can be performed by a pulmonologist for diagnosis.
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Background: Conventional TBNA has been used in the evaluation of intrathoracic lymphadenopathy with varied success rates depending upon size, site and aetiology of the node. Although mediastinoscopy has higher successes but it comes at the cost of general anaesthesia, more complications and limited access to the inferior and posterior mediastinum. Endobronchial ultrasound guided transbronchial needle aspiration has the advantage of real time nodal sampling with good success rates and minimal complications. The aim of our study was to assess the diagnostic yield and safety of EBUS TBNA in the evaluation of intrathoracic lymphadenopathy.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at government chest diseases hospital Srinagar over a period of two years from January 2016-December 2018 on 100 consecutive patients who underwent EBUS TBNA procedure for evaluation mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy. The data was collected and analysed for diagnostic yield and safety profile.Results: Out of the 100 subjects included in the study 52% were males and 48% were females. Mean age of the study population was 48.5±16.65 years. Most of the nodes sampled were subcarinal in location followed by paratracheal and hilar group. Granulomatous pathology (tuberculosis and sarcoidosis) was present in 41 patients followed by malignancy in 39 patients. Anthracosis was the cause of lymphadenopathy in 4 of the patients. There were no major complications in our study.Conclusions: EBUS TBNA is an effective and safe procedure for evaluation of mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy.
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Background: Medical thoracoscopy or pleuroscopy, in recent past has received lot of interest for diagnostic as well as therapeutic purposes. In the evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion, it has become a key diagnostic modality as it is a cost effective and safe procedure. The aim of present study was to assess the diagnostic yield of medical thoracoscopy in patients with undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion.Methods: This prospective study was conducted at government chest diseases hospital Srinagar between December 2016 to June 2018. One hundred and twenty-five (125) patients who fulfilled inclusion criteria were included in this study. Thoracoscopy was done using rigid thoracoscope under local anesthesia. Thoracoscopic and histopathological data of enrolled patients was collected prospectively and analysed.Results: Patients enrolled in the study were in the age range of 17 to 82 years and consisted of 80 males and 45 females. Most common thoracoscopic finding was multiple variable sized nodules (53.6%) followed by sago grain infiltration (15.2%). Malignancy was the most common histopathological diagnosis (60.8%) with metastatic adenocarcinoma being the most common histopathological diagnosis (50%). The overall diagnostic yield of thoracoscopy was 90.4%.Conclusions: Medical thoracoscopy is a safe procedure with excellent diagnostic yield for evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion with minimal complication rates.