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Pulmonary & Critical Care
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Research network
School of Medicine to lead international pediatric lung transplant research trials
March 14,
2008 -- The School of Medicine has received a five-year, $3.9 million grant to lead an international research effort designed to improve outcomes for children undergoing lung transplants. Lung-transplant patients are subject to more frequent infections, organ rejection and other complications than patients with other transplanted organs.
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Detecting early and accurately
Gene chips used to distinguish ventilator-associated pneumonia from underlying critical illness
Feb. 12,
2008 -- Critically ill patients who need a ventilator to breathe face a high risk of pneumonia. The lung infection, however, is exceedingly difficult to diagnose because a patient's underlying condition often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia's symptoms - a reality that can delay appropriate antibiotic treatment. Using gene chip technology, scientists at the School of Medicine demonstrate for the first time they can distinguish pneumonia associated with ventilator use from other serious illnesses.
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'Clinician at heart'
Bedside to bench and back
Oct. 12,
2007 --
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| Photo by Dilip Vishwanat |
| Thomas Ferkol Jr. gives patient Carli Kasten a chance to listen to his heart and lungs before he listens to hers. |
Growing up in northeastern Ohio, Thomas Ferkol Jr. lived among the Old-Order Amish communities. When he was young, his father taught physical education and art in a small school system in Geauga County, where many of his students were Amish. As an unexpected twist, Ferkol, a pediatric physician-scientist working on cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases in children, has found through patients he treats at St. Louis Children's Hospital that a rare genetic lung disease is common in Amish and Mennonite populations.
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Showing Stories 1 through 3 of 35.
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Lung patients see a new era of transplants
The New York Times
Sept. 25,
2006 -- Front page story -- A quiet revolution in the world of lung transplants is saving the lives of people who, just two years ago, would have died on the waiting list. Changes include who gets a lung transplant first -- people who would soon die without a transplant, but who had a good chance of surviving after one.
Another major change is that more lungs from cadavers have become available.
WUSTL transplant surgeon Alexander Patterson comments. WUSTL has one of the country's largest lung transplant programs.
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Medicare says it will pay, but patients say 'no thanks'
New York Times
and 2 others
March 3,
2006 -- To test whether federal health spending actually helps patients, Medicare has been requiring more and more of the nation's retirees to participate in clinical trials to measure the effectiveness of a growing range of treatments, before agreeing to pay for them. After seeing the clinical trial's results and the risks involved, many patients and the doctors who refer them to surgeons seemed to lose their enthusiasm for the procedure.
That first was a study of a risky but popular operation for patients with advanced emphysema, that was developed by then WUSTL surgeon Joel Cooper, who is now at U. Penn. Cooper published reports of his patients that were so promising that his medical center, Washington University, could hardly keep up with the demand. Cooper still stands by the lung volume reduction operation.
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Treatment may aid asthma sufferers
Los Angeles Times
and 61 others
Feb. 2,
2006 -- A two-drug treatment may one day help restore healthy breathing in those with asthma and chronic bronchitis, according to a WUSTL study led by researcher Michael Holtzman. Holtzman and other researchers found that some cells lining the air passages of the lungs transform into another cell type in mice and humans with those disorders, leading to the overproduction of mucus in the airways.
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Artificial heart can aid those on transplant waiting lists
USA Today.com, CBSnews.com
and 21 others
April 26,
2004 -- A type of temporary artificial heart to help near-death patients live long enough to receive a heart transplant has won the cautious backing of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration. The artificial heart is a complex and risky device that requires cutting out the bottom half of the human heart to implant. Side effects can include infection, bleeding and stroke. Patients implanted with the device are tethered to a washing machine-sized power generator until they can receive a donor heart. Still, the device "will fill a very important niche" for a small number of patients who have run out of other options, said Thomas Ferguson, professor emeritus of surgery at the School of Medicine.
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