The role of bronchoscopy in diagnosis of chronic cough in adults: a retrospective single-center study.

INTRODUCTION: Cough is one of the most frequent symptoms reported to pulmonologists. The role of bronchoscopy in the diagnostic work-up of chronic cough is not clearly defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) and additional testing of samples collected during FOB in the differential diagnosis of chronic cough in adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a single-center retrospective study. Out of 7115 conventional white light FOB examinations, we finally selected 198 with cough as the only indication. RESULTS: In 40.9% of bronchoscopic examinations, no visible cause of cough was found. Visual signs of chronic bronchitis (CB) were detected in 57.6% of reports. Only in 3 cases (1.5%) bronchoscopy revealed a potential cause of chronic cough other than CB. Mycobacterium tuberculosis or other mycobacteria were spotted in none of the samples. In 91.1% of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytologic examinations, at least one cell count abnormality was detected, but only in case of increased percentage of eosinophils, it might be considered clinically relevant. In 53% of bacteriological culture results, at least one potentially pathogenic bacterium was isolated. CONCLUSIONS: The present study results strengthen the evidence that FOB combined with additional testing of airway specimens obtained during FOB is not a powerful tool in the differential diagnosis of chronic cough, and FOB as a diagnostic tool may be overused. The appropriate timing and decision regarding referral for FOB and additional testing of achieved material requires careful clinical consideration.

Is bronchoscopy always justified in diagnosis of haemoptysis? Response to the letter of Solidoro and Guerrera.

none.

Mechanisms of Memory Retrieval in Slow-Wave Sleep.

Study Objectives: Memories are strengthened during sleep. The benefits of sleep for memory can be enhanced by re-exposing the sleeping brain to auditory cues; a technique known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Prior studies have not assessed the nature of the retrieval mechanisms underpinning TMR: the matching process between auditory stimuli encountered during sleep and previously encoded memories. We carried out two experiments to address this issue. Methods: In Experiment 1, participants associated words with verbal and nonverbal auditory stimuli before an overnight interval in which subsets of these stimuli were replayed in slow-wave sleep. We repeated this paradigm in Experiment 2 with the single difference that the gender of the verbal auditory stimuli was switched between learning and sleep. Results: In Experiment 1, forgetting of cued (vs. noncued) associations was reduced by TMR with verbal and nonverbal cues to similar extents. In Experiment 2, TMR with identical nonverbal cues reduced forgetting of cued (vs. noncued) associations, replicating Experiment 1. However, TMR with nonidentical verbal cues reduced forgetting of both cued and noncued associations. Conclusions: These experiments suggest that the memory effects of TMR are influenced by the acoustic overlap between stimuli delivered at training and sleep. Our findings hint at the existence of two processing routes for memory retrieval during sleep. Whereas TMR with acoustically identical cues may reactivate individual associations via simple episodic matching, TMR with nonidentical verbal cues may utilize linguistic decoding mechanisms, resulting in widespread reactivation across a broad category of memories.

The Benefits of Targeted Memory Reactivation for Consolidation in Sleep are Contingent on Memory Accuracy and Direct Cue-Memory Associations.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To investigate how the effects of targeted memory reactivation (TMR) are influenced by memory accuracy prior to sleep and the presence or absence of direct cue-memory associations. METHODS: 30 participants associated each of 50 pictures with an unrelated word and then with a screen location in two separate tasks. During picture-location training, each picture was also presented with a semantically related sound. The sounds were therefore directly associated with the picture locations but indirectly associated with the words. During a subsequent nap, half of the sounds were replayed in slow wave sleep (SWS). The effect of TMR on memory for the picture locations (direct cue-memory associations) and picture-word pairs (indirect cue-memory associations) was then examined. RESULTS: TMR reduced overall memory decay for recall of picture locations. Further analyses revealed a benefit of TMR for picture locations recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep, but not those recalled with a high degree of accuracy. The benefit of TMR for low accuracy memories was predicted by time spent in SWS. There was no benefit of TMR for memory of the picture-word pairs, irrespective of memory accuracy prior to sleep. CONCLUSIONS: TMR provides the greatest benefit to memories recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep. The memory benefits of TMR may also be contingent on direct cue-memory associations.

Removal of carbamazepine from aqueous solution by adsorption on fly ash-amended soil.

Carbamazepine (CBZ), nonbiodegradable pharmaceutical residue, has become an emerging pollutant in several aquatic environments. The effectiveness of the mixture of soil and fly ash (FA) in adsorbing CBZ from aqueous solution has been studied as well as agitation time, FA content, initial CBZ concentration and desorption as a function of FA content. The adsorption kinetics fits a hyperbolic or pseudo-second-order model. The maximum adsorbed amounts for natural soil and a mixture of soil/FA ranged from 77 to 158 mg kg(-1). Rate constants were considered relatively low (4.15-15.59 × 10(-4) kg mg(-1) min). The logarithmic form of the Freundlich equation gave a linearity and the Kf constants increased with the increase of FA content in adsorbent mixtures and with the affinity between the adsorbent surface and adsorbed solute. The mean removed amounts of CBZ by adsorption batch experiments in a soil mixture with 30% FA content were up to 92.8% for coal FA and 33% in natural soil. This work proved that the mixture of the coal FA and soil can be used as an efficient adsorbent material for removal of CBZ from water.

Comparison of linuron degradation in the presence of pesticide mixtures in soil under laboratory conditions.

It is widely recognised that complex interactions occur between chemicals in mixtures. In many agricultural situations, the use of tank mixes and complex spray programs is a common practice. Insecticides, fungicides and a herbicide being applied in potato protection were used in this research. Interactions between linuron and insecticides, such as thiamethoxam or clothianidin, and fungicides, such as mancozeb or chlorothalonil, were examined in soil. The degradation rate of linuron in soil during laboratory incubation in six treatments was studied. Mixtures of linuron with mancozeb in sandy loam and clay loam soils had a significant effect on the persistence of this herbicide. For example, for the same herbicide, t 1/2 values for linuron were from 37 days in sandy loam to 44 days in clay loam. These values changed (64-67 days) when thiamethoxam and mancozeb were in soil. When mancozeb was added only, the half-life values were from 59 to 62 days, respectively. Other mixtures with chlorothalonil, thiamethoxam and clothianidin did not have any effect. In order to compare linuron degradation rates in soils, a single first-order model and expanded statistical analysis were used.