Inspiratory muscle training may have beneficial effects in certain patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Because of the lack of a home training device, normocapnic hyperpnea has rarely been used as a training mode for patients with COPD, and is generally considered unsuitable to large-scale application. To study the effects of hyperpnea training, we randomized 30 patients with COPD and ventilatory limitation to respiratory muscle training (RMT; n = 15) with a new portable device or to breathing exercises with an incentive spirometer (controls; n = 15). Both groups trained twice daily for 15 min for 5 d per week for 8 wk. Training-induced changes were significantly greater in the RMT than in the control group for the following variables: respiratory muscle endurance measured through sustained ventilation (+825 +/- 170 s [mean +/- SEM] versus -27 +/- 61 s, p < 0.001), inspiratory muscle endurance measured through incremental inspiratory threshold loading (+58 +/- 10 g versus +21.7 +/- 9.5 g, p = 0.016), maximal expiratory pressure (+20 +/- 7 cm H(2)O versus -6 +/- 6 cm H(2)O, p = 0.009), 6-min walking distance (+58 +/- 11 m versus +11 +/- 11 m, p = 0.002), V O(2peak) (+2.5 +/- 0.6 ml/kg/min versus -0.3 +/- 0.9 ml/kg/min, p = 0.015), and the SF-12 physical component score (+9.9 +/- 2.7 versus +1.8 +/- 2.4, p = 0.03). Changes in dyspnea, maximal inspiratory pressure, treadmill endurance, and the SF-12 mental component score did not differ significantly between the RMT and control groups. In conclusion, home-based respiratory muscle endurance training with the new device used in this study is feasible and has beneficial effects in subjects with COPD and ventilatory limitation.

The exclusion of bone metastases is important in the initial staging of nonsmall cell lung cancer, though there is debate about whether bone scans should be performed routinely or restricted to patients who present with clinical or laboratory indicators suggesting skeletal metastases. In a prospective study of 110 consecutive patients referred for initial staging of non-small cell lung cancer, we assessed the sensitivity of a group of clinical indicators (chest pain, skeletal pain, bone tenderness on physical examination, serum alkaline phosphatase, and serum calcium) for the presence of skeletal metastases as determined by bone scanning. The final staging result was validated with follow up data over at least three years. At the initial staging 37 of 110 bone scans (34%) showed areas of increased uptake, of which only nine were confirmed to be metastases (by tomography, computed tomography, or biopsy). Half the patients (55) had at least one clinical indicator suggesting skeletal metastases, including all patients with proved skeletal metastases. Thus the sensitivity of these clinical indicators was 100% and the specificity 54%. Within one year three of 27 patients with non-confirmed positive bone scans had skeletal metastases, one of which was in the area that had shown increased uptake initially. In addition, bronchogenic carcinoma spreads to the skeletal system.'6 Radioisotope bone scanning has been reported to be a very sensitive method for the detection of such tumour deposits'7 18 and is widely used in the staging of non-small cell lung cancer. Early studies by Hooper et al,'9 Ramsdell et al0 and White2' suggested that in the initial staging of non-small cell lung cancer skeletal radionuclide scans could be restricted to patients with clinical signs or symptoms of skeletal disease. This approach was questioned, however, by several authors2224 and a recent study by Quinn et al 25 gave inconclusive results on the value of routine bone scans in clinically symptom free patients, the group in which a reliable preoperative assessment of distant metastases is most important.Our aim therefore was to compare the value of a series of clinical indicators in predicting skeletal metastases in patients with non-small cell lung cancer referred for initial preoperative staging with the value of a skeletal radioisotope scan. The patients were followed for at least three years to validate our clinical staging. Methods PATIENTSWe carried out a prospective study of 110 consecutive patients referred to our department for initial staging of non-small cell lung cancer from January 1983 to December 1985. There were 98 men (mean age 62, range 34-79 years) and 12 women (mean age 51, range 41-69 years). Patients known to have had a previous tumour were excluded. Of the 110 patients, 67

We report the case of a 51-year-old man with massive haemoptysis due to a systemic arterialization of lung without sequestration. Unlike bronchopulmonary sequestration there was a normal bronchial distribution and the involved lung parenchyma was normal. Therefore a therapeutic transarterial embolization of the aberrant systemic vessel from the distal thoracic aorta was performed. The embolization was successful and the patient did not suffer from further haemoptysis during the subsequent follow-up of ten months. A postembolization aortogram 6 months later demonstrated a complete occlusion of the embolized aberrant artery; in the lung perfusion scan there was only a small perfusion defect, but normal ventilation in the embolized basal part of the left lower lobe. Our case represents an alternative treatment to surgery for this rare anomaly.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00280800.