A retrospective study of prognostic factors in patients with interstitial pneumonia receiving long-term oxygen therapy

Japanese guideline for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease of unknown etiology which accounts for a large proportion of cases of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. It has a very poor prognosis with a 5-year survival rate of 30% or below, and so far there has been no guideline in Japan offering an established effective therapy based on evidence. In addition to the establishment of basic therapies, there is also an urgent need to establish therapies to deal with complications, as death occurs in many cases due to acute exacerbation or comorbid lung cancer. It was therefore decided to formulate a guideline in order to promote evidence-based clinical practice, to further improve the quality of medical treatment in the clinical setting, and to allow the benefits to be enjoyed by the public.

Risk factors for pneumonia among patients with Parkinson's disease: a Taiwan nationwide population-based study

OBJECTIVE

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, few studies have been performed to explore the risk factors for pneumonia development in patients with PD.

METHODS

We conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study of patients with PD to identify the risk factors for these patients developing pneumonia. Participants with newly diagnosed PD between 2000 and 2009 were enrolled from the 2000-2010 National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We compared patients with PD with an incidence of hospitalization with pneumonia vs those without, and Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the risk of pneumonia.

RESULTS

Of the 2,001 enrolled patients (mean follow-up duration 5.8 years, range: 2.7-14.7 years), 381 (19.0%) had an incidence of hospitalization with pneumonia during the study period. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis identified older age group (≥80 years of age, hazard ratio [HR] =3.15 [95% confidence interval 2.32-4.28]), male sex (HR =1.59 [1.29-1.96]), certain geographic regions (northern, HR =1.36 [1.04-1.78], southern and eastern, HR =1.40 [1.05-1.88]), rural areas (HR =1.34 [1.05-1.72]), chronic heart failure (HR =1.53 [1.02-2.29]), and chronic kidney disease (HR =1.39 [1.03-1.90]) as risk factors for hospitalization with pneumonia in patients with PD. However, treatment for dental caries was a protective factor (HR =0.80 [0.64-0.99]).

CONCLUSION

The results of this study highlight risk factors that are associated with hospitalization with pneumonia, and, for the first time, suggest a link between treated dental caries and a diminished risk of hospitalization with pneumonia in patients with PD.