COPD Patients Have Short Lung Magnetic Resonance T1 Relaxation Time

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may provide attractive biomarkers for assessment of pulmonary disease in clinical trials as it is free from ionizing radiation, minimally invasive and allows regional information. The aim of this study was to characterize lung MRI T₁ relaxation time as a biomarker of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and specifically its relationship to smoking history, computed tomography (CT), and pulmonary function test (PFT) measurements in comparison to healthy age-matched controls. Lung T₁ and inter-quartile range (IQR) of T₁ maps from 24 COPD subjects and 12 healthy age-matched non-smokers were retrospectively analyzed from an institutional review board approved study. The subjects underwent PFTs and two separate MR imaging sessions at 1.5 tesla to test T₁ repeatability. CT scans were performed on the COPD subjects. T₁ repeatability (intraclass correlation coefficient) was 0.72 for repeated scans acquired on two visits. The lung T₁ was significantly shorter (p < 0.0001) and T₁ IQR was significantly larger (p = 0.0002) for the COPD subjects compared to healthy controls. Lung T₁ significantly (p = 0.001) correlated with lung density assessed with CT. Strong significant correlations (p < 0.0001) between lung T₁ and all PFT measurements were observed. Cigarette exposure did not correlate with lung T₁ in COPD subjects. In conclusion, lung MRI T₁ mapping shows potential as a repeatable, radiation free, non-invasive imaging technique in the evaluation of COPD.     

Hemodialysis Patients Born With a Low Birth Weight Should Have a Different Time Course of Kidney Diseases Than Those Born With a Normal Birth Weight

Low birth weight (LBW) is thought to be one of the risk factors for the progression of kidney diseases. This study hypothesized that the onset age of kidney disease, the rate of progression of kidney disease, or the age at the time of hemodialysis (HD) induction among HD patients that were born with LBW is different from those without a history of LBW. A questionnaire survey in nine dialysis units in Japan was performed and 427 answer sheets were collected. There were statistically significant differences in the present age, the age of kidney disease onset, and the age of HD induction between LBW group and normal birth weight group (NBW). An analysis limited to participants whose underlying disease was diabetic nephropathy revealed that the duration from the onset of nephropathy to HD induction was much shorter in HD patients with a history of LBW than those with a NBW history. In addition, the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the birth weight and the period from onset of diabetic nephropathy to HD induction was 0.283. Although these results might partly support the primary hypothesis, the necessity to perform other clinical studies is also emphasized.     

Have a nice day -- do a wart audit

We performed an audit of the treatment of genital warts at our clinic by reviewing the case notes of 302 patients who presented with a first episode of genital warts. 186 were suitable for inclusion, of whom over 90% were clear of warts within three months. However, even after just one month of treatment, 84.9% of men and 60.2% of women were clear of warts. On the basis of this information, we can be more optimistic when advising patients about the likely duration of treatment.