Elevated NLR can be used as a marker similar to CRP, WBC and ESR, in the determination of increased inflammation in acutely exacerbated COPD. NLR could be beneficial for the early detection of potential acute exacerbations in patients with COPD who have normal levels of traditional markers.

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) has a poor prognosis. Objectives: Only few studies in literature investigated the presence of pleural fluid and radiographic findings for the prognosis of MPM. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the hospital charts of 363 MPM patients who were diagnosed from January 1989 to March 2010. Survival time was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Pretreatment clinical, laboratory and radiographic features of each patient at the time of diagnosis were obtained from patients’ charts. Results: The mean age of 363 patients (217 men, 146 women) was 50.6 ± 11.2 years (range 19–85) and the mean survival time was 11.7 ± 8.6 months (range 1–53). Histological types of MPM were epithelial (71.2%), mixed (15.9%) and sarcomatous type (4.9%). The frequency of disease stages were 31.4% for stage 1, 24.2% for stage 2, 28.6% for stage 3 and 15.8% for stage 4. The most frequent symptoms were dyspnea (82.1%), chest pain (68.3%) and weight loss (58.9%). Results of univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that a Karnofsky performance score ≤60, a pleural fluid glucose level ≤40 mg/dl, a C-reactive protein level >50 mg/l, a serum lactate dehydrogenase level >500 U/l, the presence of pleural fluid, pleural thickening >1 cm and a platelet count of >420 × 10³/µl were found to be associated with poor prognosis in MPM. Conclusions: Our data suggest that low pleural fluid glucose and high C-reactive protein, the presence of pleural fluid and pleural thickening were associated with poor MPM prognosis. Further prospective studies are needed to highlight prognostic factors more clearly.

We aimed to investigate the correlation between red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and other inflammatory markers with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) severity. Seventy patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis were compared with 50 age-matched and gender-matched healthy controls. The mean age of PTB patients was 50.4±21.8 years. There were no differences in terms of age, gender, and smoking history between PTB patients and controls. Patients with advanced PTB had a significantly higher white blood cell count, neutrophil count, RDW, NLR, and C-reactive protein when compared to patients with mild to moderate PTB. RDW (17.7 versus 15.7 %, p=0.002) and NLR (4.7 versus 3.1, p=0.009) values were higher in patients with advanced PTB as opposed to patients with mild to moderate PTB. NLR and RDW levels may be used as markers of inflammation to help clinically manage patients with TB and to determine disease severity.KEY WORDS: inflammatory markers; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; pulmonary tuberculosis; radiological extent; red blood cell distribution width.

Admission PC and MPV levels were not different in the survived and dead groups. But in the survived group, admission WBC, MPV and PDW levels decreased, while PC increased when compared with admission levels. In the dead group, admission MPV and PDW levels increased, while PC decreased with respect to admission levels. The admission mean PC of the dead group was 182 103, which was above the thrombocytopenia limit. The ratio of admission thrombocytopenia was 45.3% in the dead group, which was significantly higher than that of the survived group (13.8%) (P < 0.001) CONCLUSIONS: Increasing MPV and decreasing platelet count may alert intensivists to the worse course of disease in patients who had normal platelet counts at ICU admission. The development of thrombocytopenia may also be essential to assessing the outcome of ICU patients.

Swyer-James-Macleod syndrome (SJMS) is a rare constrictive bronchiolitis with air-flow obstruction and a decreased number and diameter of ipsilateral peripheral pulmonary vessels. This syndrome is characterized by unilateral hyperlucency on chest radiography. Computed tomography provides useful additional information. The diagnosis is usually made in childhood but sometimes occurs in adulthood. The disease often presents with dyspnea, decreased exercise tolerance, cough, hemoptysis, and recurrent pulmonary infections. SJMS may be confused with asthma or pulmonary embolism due to similar symptoms and may result in inappropriate therapy. This case series examined the clinical and imaging spectrum of four patients who were diagnosed with SJMS in adulthood.