Addition of fluticasone-salmeterol to tiotropium therapy did not statistically influence rates of COPD exacerbation but did improve lung function, quality of life, and hospitalization rates in patients with moderate to severe COPD. International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial registration number: ISRCTN29870041.

ULMONARY EMBOLISM IS A COMmon and serious medical condition leading to the hospitalization or death of more than 250 000 people in the United States each year. 1 It is the third leading cause of cardiovascular mortality and is estimated to result in 5% to 10% of all deaths in US hospitals. 2 Despite the potentially lethal nature of this condition, pulmonary embolism remains one of the most difficult conditions for clinicians to diagnose accurately. 3 Given the high mortality of untreated pulmonary embolism, timely accurate diagnostic tests are essential to enable the For editorial comment see p 2788.

Postthrombotic syndrome has a significant impact on disease-specific quality of life that may not be captured by generic quality-of-life measures. Patient-based quality-of-life measures correlated well with physician-assessed PTS. Further research is indicated to assess the value of including quality of life as a routine measure of outcome in clinical studies of patients with deep venous thrombosis and PTS.

No abstract

On average, QOL, dyspnea, and walking distance improve during the year after pulmonary embolism. However, a number of clinical and physiological predictors of reduced improvement over time were identified, most notably female sex, higher body mass index, and exercise limitation on 1-month cardiopulmonary exercise test. Our results provide new information on patient-relevant prognosis after pulmonary embolism.