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Background: Pneumonia remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality at pediatric age (estimated by UNICEF at 3 million child deaths per year worldwide). Although the etiology of pneumonia is well known, in many patients the exact pathogen is not identified after routine diagnostic workup. We present three cases with complications. that were diagnosed and treated in our Pneumology Clinic. The aim of this case series is to point out the challenges in diagnosing and managing such diseases in children. The evolution of the three cases was difficult, all children needed ICU care. Cultures collected for all of them were negative, probably secondary to the fact that they received antibiotic treatment at home, before carrying out tests. Yet, after receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics and supportive treatment the evolution was favorable in the end. Conclusion: Despite progresses that were made in the last century concerning the antibiotic treatment in pneumonia there are still cases that develop severe complications that require multidisciplinary approach.

Lung cancer and chronic lung diseases are currently two of the main causes of death in the world. Both conditions have common etiological factors and multiple research directions in the last decades demonstrated the presence of some common relevant biological mechanisms which can explain why patients with chronic respiratory diseases are at higher risk of developing lung cancer. In this review, we discuss the role of chronic pulmonary diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, asthma, pneumoconioses, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and their impact on lung cancer development. We also summarize the possible mechanisms involved in this relationship and how these chronic diseases influence the prognosis of patients with lung cancer. Our aim was to inform the clinicians in this respect for a careful follow-up of this category of patients and for the application of a personalized treatment approach.

Background: Point of care chest ultrasound (POCCUS) is expanding with useful new clinical applications. Opening a POCCUS service requires access to equipment, training sessions and a mentorship scheme, however, access to experienced mentors is not always easily available. Aims: To report the initial feedback from a pilot POCCUS long-distance mentorship project from the UK to Romania. Methods: An ultrasound (Mindray DP-50 with a convex probe) was acquired for the Pulmonology Clinical Hospital in Iasi, Romania, where resident physicians had no previous experience with POCCUS. A live 2-hour presentation on knobology and image acquisition was done for 20 residents. Long distance mentorship continued via WhatsApp and Skype from London, UK, with monthly sessions both on image acquisition and interpretation. Two months into the program a 9-item online questionnaire was administed to participants. Results: Fifteen doctors replied; 90% considered POCCUS useful in their clinical activity and important to implement; 74% indicated that the knobology was easy to learn, while 61% said that chest image acquisition was easy to learn. Although 55% considered chest image interpretation easy to learn, only 47% felt confident to use POCCUS routinely. Changes suggested included a more frequent online interaction, better structured online discussions, and to focus the specific training to a smaller group of doctors who can become local experts and trainers. Conclusion: Long distance POCCUS mentorship can work, but requires frequent and structured online discussions, with emphasis on image interpretation, directed to a small number of participants.

This paper shows that rheological properties of molecular liquids, relevant for EHD contacts, can be determined experimentally on molecular solids. A shear head is developed to measure the viscosity and limiting shear stress of solid paraffin. Preliminary results show that this idea is feasible.Copyright © 2005 by ASME

Improvements in early detection of cancer have led to an important decrease in mortality rates of cancer. Given the increased incidence rates and decreased mortality rates, the number of patients surviving cancer is rapidly increasing. Although cancer patients face many physical and psychological symptoms, they also continue to engage in poor health behaviors at rates similar to those of the general-healthy population. The prime example of such unhealthy behavior is smoking. The reports show that smoking rates at the time of diagnosis of cancer vary from 10% to 95%. Our study analyzed how the smoking status influenced the outcome of chemotherapy of 249 patients suffering from various forms of cancer. Our statistical analysis showed that patients who smoked had a significant different response to chemotherapy compared to their nonsmoking peers. This meant that in our sample of 149 cancer suffering patients, individuals who did not smoke had a significant better chance of a partial positive response after chemotherapy compared to patients who smoked regularly. Therefore, tobacco smoking is an adverse prognostic factor associated with a resistance to chemotherapy. These results are important given the fact that cancer patients already face a combination of unpleasant symptoms related to their disease but also from the side effects of their treatment. Uncovering the exact mechanisms through which smoking is affecting the outcome of chemotherapy may help in increasing the quality of life, the symptom burden or the final outcome of chemotherapy.