Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Growing evidence supports a gut-lung axis: a connection between the gut, including its microorganisms (microbiota), and lung disease outcomes.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center had a leading role in a large national study designed to compare two early interventions in the treatment of patients with sepsis, the body’s severe response to an uncontrolled infection.

Indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs) are a common finding on CT imaging of the lungs and often require costly and invasive testing to diagnose. IPN diagnosis is especially difficult in regions like Middle Tennessee where fungal diseases such as histoplasmosis are endemic.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been named a fully accredited adult PCD (primary ciliary dyskinesia) Foundation Clinical and Research Center site.

Delirium — a form of acute brain failure — affects 8-17% of older adults who present to the emergency department (ED). It is associated with adverse outcomes including higher health care use, accelerated functional decline, and increased mortality.

For most people, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is about as dangerous as the common cold. But for children younger than 6 months old, and for people whose immune defenses have been weakened by age, disease, chemotherapy or transplantation, RSV can be fatal.

Elevated levels of circulating cell-free hemoglobin, which is released from red blood cells in pathologic conditions, have been observed in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

A Vanderbilt University Medical Center joint study between the divisions of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine has found that some children with mystery digestive symptoms may actually have undiagnosed alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), commonly known as the red meat allergy linked to tick bites.

Only 20% of donor lungs are in sufficient condition for transplantation, which means that many people die every day while waiting on the transplant list. Discovering new ways to increase the supply of donor lungs is an urgent problem and is desperately needed to save lives of patients with chronic lung disease.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is presenting the research team of Brenda Pun, DNP, RN, FCCM, and E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, with its AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.