Latest Conference Articles

Watchful waiting in patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1 infection may increase the number of advanced liver disease cases, according to a poster presented at the 2013 American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) meeting held in Washington, DC.

One of the most important tasks for physicians treating a patient who has experienced a first unprovoked pulmonary embolism is determining how long the patient must remain on oral anticoagulants.

Guidelines to be released later this year by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) suggest that bronchial thermoplasty may be an effective treatment for moderate to severe asthma patients, for whom inhaled corticosteroids have provided unsatisfactory results.

Plenary session at CHEST 2013 focused on the impact of early warning scores, medical response teams, availability of critical care attending intensivists, and other quality measures in intensive care.

Although change in knee joint space narrowing depicted on radiographs is considered the gold standard for monitoring osteoarthritis progression and knee cartilage volume loss, the method doesn't account for extrusion of the medial meniscus, which new research suggests can better predict radiographic osteoarthritis change over time.

Providers should perform mediastinal biopsy in order to properly stage lung cancer, after diagnosis, and before surgery.

Case study presented at CHEST 2013 details the experience of a patient with hepatitis C who, after undergoing liver transplant, died after developing a serious lung infection and other complications.

During their "Great Debate" keynote session of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2013 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, two leading rheumatologists took direct aim at each other's significant clinical trial data to provide rationale for choosing biologics over triple therapy - or vice versa - as the treatment of choice for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

A "service learning" collaboration that matches respiratory therapy students with elementary schools improves kids' and caregivers' awareness of asthma triggers and reduces unscheduled inhaler use.

Though rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a significantly higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to the general population, results from a pair of studies show that the biologic disease modifier Actemra (tocilizumab) may actually improve the cardiovascular (CV) profiles of RA patients.

Although rheumatologists have an array of disease measurement tools to choose from, they generally choose to ignore all of them when they're assessing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

As a follow-up to the initial establishment of Simponi (golimumab)'s safety and efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), researchers presented final 5-year data evaluating the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker's effects in RA patients taking methotrexate and those naïve to the biologic agent.

Doctors treating patients for COPD exacerbations may have recourse to a variety of treatments, including some off-label applications of existing drugs, and smoking cessation may result in a reduction of repeat occurrences.

Presentation at CHEST 2013 reviewed key considerations surrounding the treatment of pulmonary embolism and other venous thromboembolic events with the newer class of oral anticoagulant agents.

Providers who don't use social media are missing valuable opportunities to learn from and educate their peers, recruit patients, and repudiate misinformation.

Though previous reports have described a link between vitamin D deficiency and an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development, a trio of studies has now offered clinical support to the contrary belief.

Although methotrexate with or without glucocorticoids (GCs) is commonly used as a first-line treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), study results show that combining the medication with two other traditional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) produces better outcomes in newly-diagnosed RA patients.

Noting that it takes an average of 5 years before a fibromyalgia patient receives a diagnosis, researchers conducted a retrospective data analysis to identify significant variables that may enable earlier detection and diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

Presenters at CHEST 2013 reported that preliminary study results suggest that an accurate exhaled breath biomarker could be developed for use as a clinical test to detect lung cancer.

Study results presented at CHEST 2013 show that patients given beta-blockers may actually be at increased risk of having an adverse cardiac event during a noncardiac surgical procedure.

Study results presented at CHEST 2013 show that the use of ultrasound testing rather than x-rays or CT scans in the ICU reduces patient radiation exposure and lowers costs of care.

Children born to mothers diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may be twice as likely to develop autism as those whose mothers don't have the chronic autoimmune disease.

Results from a small study show that vemurafenib is an effective and well-tolerated treatment option for patients with BRAF V600E-positive papillary thyroid cancer.

Case study shows ultrasound-guided percutaneous ethanol ablation is a well-tolerated and effective option for patients with thyroid cancer who elect not to undergo thyroidectomy.

Radiofrequency ablation and percutaneous laser ablation are both effective and safe for the management of benign thyroid nodules, with no significant differences in nodule volume reduction between the two techniques.

Researchers report that overweight and obese patients undergoing minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) are not at increased risk for surgical complications.

Clinician-performed ultrasound can identify non-palpable pathologic lateral lymph nodes in a significant percentage of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who previously underwent radiologist-performed ultrasound, potentially leading to better surgical outcomes.

Study results show patients with the disorder report a sever burden of illness, with high rates of hospital and emergency room visits and significant negative impact on activities of daily living.

Study finds that language is not a major barrier to access to thyroid cancer care for Hispanic patients at a large urban hospital with ample interpretation services and a robust community network.

Swedish women who followed a modified Paleolithic diet for two years experienced a nearly 50% decrease in iodine levels, accompanied by an increase in thyroid-stimulating hormone and a decrease in FT3 levels.