This volume presents the most recent developments in diagnosis and treatment of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and those who continue to be refractory to conventional GERD therapies. The book delineates the role of newly developed endoscopic therapies in GERD and outlines the best candidates for surgical fundoplication. Topics as the risks associated with GERD, lifestyle modification in GERD and the role of H2RA and proton pump inhibitor therapy in treating reflux disease are also explored. Written by authorities in the field, Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease is a concise yet comprehensive resource that is useful for primary care providers, gastroenterologists, pulmonologists, surgeons and ENT specialists.

The fifth edition of this seminal textbook continues to provide those who are studying or are in practice with comprehensive evidence-based coverage of all the main aspects of respiratory and cardiac physiotherapy throughout the whole lifespan - neonates, infants, children, adolescents and adults - with the patient at centre and advocating a problem-based approach. For the new edition, Jennifer Pryor and Ammani Prasad hand the baton of editorship and their lasting legacy over to Eleanor Main and Linda Denehy. With a team of over 60 international expert authors, the new editors have incorporated major changes reflecting current cardiorespiratory physiotherapy education and practice. These changes are heralded by a new title - Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy: Adults and Paediatrics (formerly Physiotherapy for Respiratory and Cardiac Problems: Adults and Paediatrics) - and a significant restructure of the content with a new set of chapters. A new key chapter on anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system lays the foundation which is then followed by a chapter on clinical assessment of adults, infants and children, and acutely ill or deteriorating patients. Additional new content includes a chapter on outcome measurement in practice and a large chapter describing rehabilitation in acute and chronic conditions in special populations including spinal cord injury, oncology, trauma and paediatrics. The chapter on therapeutic interventions is comprehensive and reflective of evidence based practice. Integrates evidence with clinical practice Case studies used to facilitate problem solving Boxes throughout highlighting key issues and points Emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to patient care Bank of 350 images on Evolve Resources. Log on to https://evolve.elsevier.com/Main/cardiorespiratory and register to access. Newly appointed editors - Eleanor Main (UK) and Linda Denehy (Australia) Content restructure and overhaul with contributions from over 60 world leading experts Chapters on: Anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system Clinical assessment of the adult, infant/child and the acutely ill/deteriorating patient Outcome measurement in practice Therapeutic interventions Managing special populations Over 180 new figures including additional full-colour photographs

Respiratory motion causes an important uncertainty in radiotherapy planning of the thorax and upper abdomen. The main objective of radiation therapy is to eradicate or shrink tumor cells without damaging the surrounding tissue by delivering a high radiation dose to the tumor region and a dose as low as possible to healthy organ tissues. Meeting this demand remains a challenge especially in case of lung tumors due to breathing-induced tumor and organ motion where motion amplitudes can measure up to several centimeters. Therefore, modeling of respiratory motion has become increasingly important in radiation therapy. With 4D imaging techniques spatiotemporal image sequences can be acquired to investigate dynamic processes in the patient's body. Furthermore, image registration enables the estimation of the breathing-induced motion and the description of the temporal change in position and shape of the structures of interest by establishing the correspondence between images acquired at different phases of the breathing cycle. In radiation therapy these motion estimations are used to define accurate treatment margins, e.g. to calculate dose distributions and to develop prediction models for gated or robotic radiotherapy. In this book, the increasing role of image registration and motion estimation algorithms for the interpretation of complex 4D medical image sequences is illustrated. Different 4D CT image acquisition techniques and conceptually different motion estimation algorithms are presented. The clinical relevance is demonstrated by means of example applications which are related to the radiation therapy of thoracic and abdominal tumors. The state of the art and perspectives are shown by an insight into the current field of research. The book is addressed to biomedical engineers, medical physicists, researchers and physicians working in the fields of medical image analysis, radiology and radiation therapy.

Noninvasive mechanical ventilation is an effective technique for the management of patients with acute or chronic respiratory failure. This comprehensive and up-to-date book explores all aspects of the subject. The opening sections are devoted to theory and equipment, with detailed attention to the use of full-face masks or helmets, the range of available ventilators, and patient-ventilator interactions. Clinical applications are then considered in depth in a series of chapters that address the use of noninvasive mechanical ventilation in chronic settings and in critical care, both within and outside of intensive care units. Due attention is also paid to weaning from conventional mechanical ventilation, potential complications, intraoperative applications, and staff training. The closing chapters examine uses of noninvasive mechanical ventilation in neonatal and pediatric care. This book, written by internationally recognized experts, will be an invaluable guide for both clinicians and researchers.

This is the book that provides expert advice on the clinical aspects of respiratory disorders. The exemplary topics are obstructive sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, angiological sequelae of sarcoidosis, or epidemiology of seasonal influenza epidemics. The emphasis is placed on the pathogenetic aspects, and the relevance and translational potential of experimental studies. The book also presents the latest trends having to with more accessible and personalized health care for chronically ill aged persons, stressing the importance of the mental and emotional sphere in upholding the feeling of life satisfaction. The entwinement of pathophysiological processes raises the issue of the development of individualized and targeted therapeutic management strategies. Clinical practitioners should liaise with medical researchers on the design and execution of investigations to enhance translational power of basic science findings. The book will be of interest to clinicians, researchers, health care providers, and other medical professionals.

Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome in Lung Transplantation presents the most current and up-to-date evidence regarding the diagnosis and management of BOS. In-depth chapters provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the definition and changing perceptions of the nature of BOS as a clinical and pathologic entity, immune and non-immune mechanisms that have been identified as risk factors for the development of BOS, and interventions that may prove to be clinically useful for the prevention or treatment of BOS. In addition to outlining the current state of knowledge, each chapter provides the reader with the most current and ongoing research in the field as well as identifies areas where future research is needed. Written by an international group of expert authors, Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome in Lung Transplantation is an important new text, that is essential reading for pulmonologists, primary care practitioners, respiratory care practitioners and clinical researchers.

From the 39th annual conference of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT), held in Washington, DC, USA in July 2011, this volume covers aspects of oxygen transport from air to the cells, organs and organisms; instrumentation and methods to sense oxygen and clinical evidence. Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXXIV includes contributions from scientists (physicists, biologists and chemists), engineers, clinicians and mathematicians.

This book comprehensively describes alkaptonuria and ochronosis. Beginning with the history, genetics, pathophysiology and diagnostics of the disease, the authors subsequently present a detailed characterization of its clinical manifestation in the spine, peripheral joints, eyes, ears, visceral organs and respiratory tract, its pathological anatomy and histology, as well as differential diagnosis. This is complemented by the latest data on therapy and experimental models of alkaptonuria, and supported by several case reports. Numerous pictures and radiological images document the clinical symptoms, giving the reader a solid understanding of the disease. On the basis of the editor's and authors' own extensive observations, the book offers an analysis of protein metabolism and aromatic amino acids in the context of alkaptonuria. Written by international experts in the field, the book offers a valuable reference guide for healthcare professionals working in rheumatology, dermatology, pulmonology, otolaryngology and histopathology.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of disability and is the fourth leading cause of death throughout the world. Although cigarette smoking is the major and best studied causative factor of COPD, there is consistent evidence that a substantial proportion of COPD cases cannot be explained by smoking. Other noxious particles and gases, such as workplace dusts, vapours, fumes or gases, indoor air pollution from burning biomass fuels during cooking foods and heating spaces, and air pollution in urban areas are important risk factors of COPD. According to collected data, 15-20% of COPD cases are likely to be caused or made worse by work; around 4,000 COPD deaths every year are related to workplace exposures, and 40% of COPD patients are below the retirement age. The development of COPD as a consequence of workplace exposure is a matter of growing interest and importance. There is no doubt that certain workplace exposures enhance the risk of COPD and may do so independently of or in concordance with cigarette smoking. The evidence is most coherent for work that entails exposure to coal, silica, welding fumes, cadmium fumes, cotton dust, farming dusts, grain dust and/or wood dust. The research found consistent associations between workplace exposures and COPD across a wide range of sectors, describing a nearly uniform pattern of exposure-response relationships. Based on the research, affected occupations include miners, construction workers, road workers, tunnel workers, welders, glass workers, metal workers, foundry workers, textile workers, farm laborers, wood workers, chemical workers, and rubber workers; in other words, a working population including millions and millions workers worldwide have been affected. It seems that occupational risk for COPD, although variable, is smaller compared with that of cigarette smoking. However, it affects a large proportion of the population and its contribution to the total burden of COPD cannot not be neglected. In addition, existing evidence indicates that workplace exposure may influence the course of COPD as factors with significant impacts on the progression and severity of the disease. As in the case of the workplace agents being causative factors of COPD, the mechanisms underlying this effect still are not fully understood. This monograph contains seven chapters which cover the most important aspects of this issue. It summarizes results of the studies performed in this area of research and conclusions based on them. This monograph also presents the author's view regarding the influence of workplace exposures on the development and progression of COPD. In addition, it may be a basis for further research for better understanding of the association between COPD and workplace exposures.

In recent years there have been various discoveries connecting inflammation and lung cancer and clearly there is growing interest in this area of cancer research. The link between unresolved inflammation and cancer has been well established with estimates that 15% of cancer deaths are inflammation-related. Evidence for this link includes the following: a) some inflammatory diseases are associated with increased risk of cancer development; b) inflammatory mediators are present surrounding and within most tumors; c) overexpression of inflammatory cytokines increases cancer development and progression in murine studies; d) inhibition of inflammatory mediators decreases cancer development and progression; and e) the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has been found to decrease cancer incidence and delay progression. The volume will present aspects of the inflammatory tumor microenvironment (TME), its many roles in tumor progression and metastasis, including creation of a hypoxic environment, increased angiogenesis and invasion, changes in expression of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and an increase in a stem cell phenotype. The book will also cover the mechanisms of inflammatory mediators. Chronic overexpression of inflammatory mediators in the TME, as seen in smokers and patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), can also lead to increased tumor initiation, progression, invasion and metastasis. The volume will provide a comprehensive perspective of the latest findings and summaries of progress made regarding inflammation and its connection to lung cancer.

This book proposes an introduction to the mathematical modeling of the respiratory system. A detailed introduction on the physiological aspects makes it accessible to a large audience without any prior knowledge on the lung. Different levels of description are proposed, from the lumped models with a small number of parameters (Ordinary Differential Equations), up to infinite dimensional models based on Partial Differential Equations. Besides these two types of differential equations, two chapters are dedicated to resistive networks, and to the way they can be used to investigate the dependence of the resistance of the lung upon geometrical characteristics. The theoretical analysis of the various models is provided, together with state-of-the-art techniques to compute approximate solutions, allowing comparisons with experimental measurements. The book contains several exercises, most of which are accessible to advanced undergraduate students.

This book examines non-invasive, electrical-based methods for disease diagnosis and assessment of heart function. In particular, a formalized signal model is proposed since this offers several advantages over methods that rely on measured data alone. By using a formalized representation, the parameters of the signal model can be easily manipulated and/or modified, thus providing mechanisms that allow researchers to reproduce and control such signals. In addition, having such a formalized signal model makes it possible to develop computer tools that can be used for manipulating and understanding how signal changes result from various heart conditions, as well as for generating input signals for experimenting with and evaluating the performance of e.g. signal extraction methods. The work focuses on bioelectrical information, particularly electrical bio-impedance (EBI). Once the EBI has been measured, the corresponding signals have to be modelled for analysis. This requires a structured approach in order to move from real measured data to the model of the corresponding signals. This book proposes a generic framework for this procedure. It can be used as a guide for modelling impedance cardiography (ICG) and impedance respirography (IRG) signals, as well as for developing the corresponding bio-impedance signal simulator (BISS).

This is the story of my double lung transplant taken from notes and including photos taken by my sister Debbie Sykes, and my loving wife Connie.