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Journey towards a smoke-free nation

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Singapore’s journey towards a smoke-free society started early in the 1970s when legislations were introduced to restrict smoking in certain public spaces and ban tobacco advertising.1 The National Smoking Control Programme was launched in 1986 with important objectives...

Fluid management in renal transplantation: Is it time to move towards goal-directed directed therapy?

Achieving optimal fluid balance for a patient undergoing major surgery, especially transplant surgery, has always been the lofty goal of peri-operative care,1 which often proves to be an elusive target. While keeping the patient well hydrated improves organ perfusion, being too generous with fluids can result in morbidity, such...

Delayed treatment with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir could remain effective in patients with Omicron BA2.2 variant of COVID-19

Dear Editor, In late February 2022, the Omicron BA.2.2 subvariant drove the outbreak of COVID-19 and rapidly spread through many parts of the world. Omicron-infected individuals aged ≥80 years who are unvaccinated are particularly at high risk of poor outcomes. COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral therapeutics have protected individuals most at risk...

Tragus pressure-guided removal of airway devices for safe emergence from sedation: A randomised controlled trial

Dear Editor, Emergence from anaesthesia and deep sedation is the transition from unconsciousness to the return of awareness and airway reflexes. The chief patterns of unsafe recovery include sudden unpredictable emergence or delayed return of airway tone and reflex with risk of airway obstruction.1 Agitation includes straining, sitting up, screaming...

Clinical characteristics of macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections among hospitalised children in Singapore

Dear Editor, Mycoplasma pneumoniae has become the leading cause of paediatric community-acquired pneumonia in countries where pneumococcal vaccination is included in the national immunisation programme, including Singapore.1 M. pneumoniae is intrinsically resistant to beta-lactams due to the absence of cell walls. Macrolides, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones are used to treat M....

Managing adult asthma during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 2022 review and current recommendations

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease, estimated to affect more than 300 million people worldwide.1 First recognised in December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has evolved into an ongoing global pandemic.2 In May...

Antiphospholipid and other autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients: A Singapore series

Dear Editor, Thrombosis is an unexpected complication of COVID-19 initially reported in 3 patients from China.1 These patients tested positive for immunoglobulin (Ig) A anticardiolipin (ACA), IgG anti-β2-glycoprotein I antibodies (aβ2GPI) and IgA aβ2GPI, though not for the lupus anticoagulant (LAC). In a Singapore study comprising 47,527 patients, 19 (0.04%) developed...

Evaluation of a health screening protocol for recovered COVID-19 patients before “return-to-play” and strenuous physical activity

Dear Editor, We conducted a prospective, single-centre cohort study to develop guidance for military personnel returning to strenuous activities following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The patients underwent a clinical review followed by a protocol to screen for cardiac, respiratory, haematological, endocrine/renal and neurological complications after recovery from infection. Both the study and screening...

Case Series of Bronchoscopic Removal of Tracheobronchial Foreign Body in Six Adults

Gustav Killian reported the first case of bronchoscopic removal of foreign body (FB) from the trachea in 1897. Since then, rigid bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia by the cardiothoracic surgeon has remained the procedure of choice for FB removal in the airways, failing which thoracotomy and bronchotomy is performed. This article...

Bronchoscopy in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FFB) has become an indispensable tool in the optimal management of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with both diagnostic and therapeutic goals. Its safety and usefulness, in well-trained hands with appropriate precautions, have led to its increasing use even in unstable and mechanically ventilated patients. This article...

Combined High-frequency Ventilation (CHFV) in the Treatment of Acute Lung Injury—A Case Report

The role of ventilatory support in acute lung injury is supportive, whilst the damage to alveolar-capillary membranes resolves and alveolar stability is restored. The optimum mode of support varies with individual patients, but none can reliably prevent progression of acute lung injury and high frequency ventilation (HFV) has been...

Contributions of Respiratory Care Practitioners to Intensive Care: A Review

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex environment in which multidisciplinary expertise has been shown to enhance clinical outcomes. For example, the availability of full-time intensivists has been associated with improved survival. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

Ventilatory Strategies for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first described by Ashbaugh et al in 1967. The original authors detailed the presence of tachypnoea, hypoxaemia, decreased respiratory compliance, bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and reported a survival rate of 42%. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

The Oxygen Delivery Debate—A Review

Multisystem organ failure occurs in a large proportion of critically ill patients and is a major cause of death in this group of patients. The mechanisms responsible for the development of multisystem organ failure in the critically ill patient are unknown. This article is available only as a PDF. Please...

Controlled Observations in Critical Care Medicine: The Therapeutic Trial

Central to the combined diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the critically ill subject is the evaluation of both the basal physiologic status and its subsequent change over time consequent to a therapeutic intervention. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

Impact on Quality of Patient Care and Procedure Use in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) Following Reorganisation

Critical care is costly as it is labour intensive and involves expensive life support technology. In the United States, the intensive care units (ICUs) use about 15% of the total hospital cost or about 1% of the gross national product. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click...

Intensivists for the Intensive Care Unit—Do They Make a Difference?

Does Critical Care Medicine exist and what defines its area of practice? Different countries have embarked on their own journeys of discovery, and have arrived at different paradigms—open versus closed models, specialty-based intensive care units (ICUs) versus general ICUs, internist versus pulmonologist or anaesthetist, and so forth. This article is...

Renal Cell Carcinoma in Patients with Chronic Renal Failure

Dunnil and associates first described the association of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with acquired cystic kidney disease (ACKD) and end stage renal disease. The incidence of ACKD in dialysis patients ranges from 10% to 90% depending on the duration of dialysis. This article is available only as a PDF. Please...

A Prospective Study of Infections with Atypical Pneumonia Organisms in Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Bronchitis

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease state characterised by the presence of airflow limitation that is generally progressive, partially reversible and caused by either intrinsic airway disease (bronchitis) or parenchymal destruction (emphysema). COPD is a leading cause of death and a major medical and economic problem. This article...

Hospitalised Low-risk Community-acquired Pneumonia: Outcome and Potential for Cost-savings

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common illness with nearly 4 million adults diagnosed each year in USA with more than 600,000 hospita1isations. The associated cost of hospitalisation is enormous and approaches nearly US$4 billion per year. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

Long-term Outcome and Disease Control in Near-fatal Asthma

Rising trends in mortality in asthma have been reported from many countries, including Asian countries such as Hong Kong. Asthma deaths have been associated with a number of avoidable factors such as deficiencies in personal and professional management that can potentially be remedied if identified. This article is available only...

Delayed Amputation in Lower Limb Trauma: An Analysis of Factors Leading to Delayed Amputation

The decision whether to amputate or to attempt a limb salvage procedure in a mangled extremity is a difficult one. Numerous protocols have been published in the literature to help surgeons in the decision making. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top...

Preliminary Results of Heart-beating and Non-heart-beating Donor Kidney Transplants—The Singapore Experience

End stage renal failure (ESRF) is the most common end stage organ disease treated with transplantation in Singapore. Though renal transplantation is the preferred treatment for ESRF, organ shortage is a major obstacle. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

Ethnicity, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and Ischaemic Heart Disease

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a condition whereby there is snoring associated with complete or partial cessation of breathing during sleep, associated with nocturnal oxygen desaturation and sleep fragmentation. This condition can lead to the effects of sleep fragmentation such as motor vehicular accidents, accidents in the workplace, social...

Rapid Mycobacterial Tuberculosis Detection in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Samples by Polymerase Chain Reaction in Patients with Upper Lobe Infiltrates and Bronchiectasis

Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), the incidence of which is rising, poses a major health problem. It is caused by <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i>. The isolation of <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> by culture has been the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, as it gives a specificity that approaches 100% and permits susceptibility testing...

Beneficial Effect of Combination Therapy with Ozagrel and Pranlukast in Exercise-induced Asthma Demonstrated by Krypton-81m Ventilation Scintigraphy—A Case Report

Exercise is a common stimulus of bronchoconstriction in subjects with asthma. Exercise-induced asthma is a temporary increase in airway resistance that occurs after several minutes of strenuous exercise, usually after the exercise has ceased. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to...

Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Exercise intolerance is a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although exertional symptoms may be mild at the outset, exercise limitation is the most disabling and distressing consequence of COPD for the majority of patients. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

Ethnic Differences in Genetic Susceptibility to Atopy and Asthma in Singapore

Twin studies have indicated that both asthma and atopy are largely regulated by genetic factors. However, the genetics is complex, involving an interaction of multiple susceptibility genes and environmental factors. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Human Genetic Susceptibility to Tuberculosis

The World Health Organization has declared that the recent resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) is a global emergency. Southeast Asia, which is seeing the greatest increase in new TB patients, is at the epicentre of this pandemic. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

A Case Report of Aspergillus Hypersensitivity Syndrome with Obstructing Bronchial Aspergillosis

The spectrum of pulmonary aspergillosis includes saprophytic colonisation, hypersensitivity syndromes and invasive lung disease. There has been a tendency to classify these syndromes as separate entities but clinical overlap occurs. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome—Report of Three Cases

Sleep-related breathing disorders are widely recognised as important causes of morbidity and mortality over the past 3 decades. The obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) and the sleep hypopnoea syndrome are well-known and well-described breathing disorders during sleep. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF”...

Audit of Oxygen Therapy in Acute General Medical Wards Following an Educational Programme

The rational basis for supplemental oxygen (O<sub>2</sub>) treatment is well established. Long-term O<sub>2</sub> therapy improves survival and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who are severely hypoxaemic. Short-term supplemental O<sub>2</sub> is required in medical emergencies and various acute disease states such as respiratory failure, circulatory...

Active Management of a Patient with Endstage Pulmonary Emphysema Using Lung Volume Reduction Surgery and Intensive Rehabilitation

A 65-year-old Chinese man with a 30-pack year history of cigarette smoking was referred to our institution for further management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Despite smoking cessation for 5 years, and pharmacological treatment with oral theophylline, inhaled ipratropium bromide and ventolin, his dyspnoea had progressed to the...

Endobronchial Mass in a Patient with Burkholderia pseudomallei Infection

The diagnosis of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection is based on culture of clinical specimens such as blood or other body fluids, or serology using indirect haemagglutination (IHA) test and various antigen detection tests. Gram stain shows a bipolar “safety-pin” pattern or small gram-negative rods. This article is available only as a...

Endobronchial Stenting in Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation for Major Airway Obstruction

Few things are as dramatic as respiratory arrest from major airway obstruction. Major airway obstruction frequently leads to well-defined clinical sequelae, namely shunt-associated hypoxaemia and post-obstructive pneumonia. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Clinical Update on Occupational Asthma

Occupational asthma is the most common occupational respiratory disease in the United Kingdom and also in Singapore. Recent estimates of the proportion of adult asthmatics where the cause could be occupational range from 4% to 9%. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

Effect of Different Endotracheal Suctioning Systems on Cardiorespiratory Parameters of Ventilated Patients

Endotracheal suctioning is a routine procedure performed in the intensive care unit (ICU) to remove secretions from the tracheobronchial tree. This is to maintain patency and reduce the risk of pulmonary atelectasis in mechanically ventilated patients. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

The Role of Early Tracheostomy in Critically Ill Neurosurgical Patients

In medical history, tracheostomy is one of the oldest operations performed. There are indications that the Egyptians first employed this procedure more than 3500 years ago when Asclepiades of Bithynia described it in the second century BC. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF”...

Effects of a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme on Physiologic and Psychosocial Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Respiratory Disorders

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a multi-disciplinary programme of care for patients with chronic respiratory impairment that is individually designed to optimise physical and social performance and autonomy. In recent years, the efficacy and scientific foundation of pulmonary rehabilitation have been firmly established. This article is available only as a PDF. Please...

Recent Advances in the Obstructive Sleep Apnoea/Hypopnoea Syndrome

The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of patients being referred for investigation for the obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS). Indeed, in many centres, possible OSAHS is now the most common respiratory referral and OSAHS is the most common outpatient respiratory diagnosis. This article is available...

All that Wheezes is not Asthma—Broncholithiasis, a Forgotten Disease

Asthma is a very common condition which presents clinically with cough, shortness of breath and wheezing. However, ‘all that wheezes is not asthma’, is an important adage not to be forgotten. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full...

Asthma Disease Management: A Provider’s Perspective

The burden of asthma appears to be increasing worldwide, especially in societies undergoing rapid urbanisation, and both morbidity and mortality from asthma have increased in many parts of the world, making it a global health concern. In Singapore, asthma is a highly prevalent problem, with an increasing societal and...

Emergency Department Asthma: Compliance with an Evidence-based Management Algorithm

Attendance at the emergency medicine department (EMD) for acute exacerbation is an important milestone in the natural history of patients with asthma. It is an indication of clinically severe disease, inadequate preventive treatment and failure of self-medication for acute symptoms. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click...

Four-month Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Smear-negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis: Results at 30 to 60 Months

Patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) are usually treated with a 6-month regimen in which chemotherapy is administered daily, intermittently or as a combined (daily and intermittent) regimen. However, patients with smear-negative PTB who have small lesions in the lung may not require the full duration of chemotherapy. This article...

Bacteriologically-negative Pulmonary Tuberculosis—The Singapore Tuberculosis Control Unit Experience

The management of a patient as for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in the setting of negative bacteriology would have to take into account not only the likelihood that the patient has active PTB, but also the consequences of a mistaken diagnosis and the adverse effects of TB treatment. Patients with...

Asthma in Light of Patient Documents. A Factor Analytic Study

The lack of uniform criteria for asthma handicaps the diagnosis, the systematic documentation of cases and the consistent reporting of studies addressing asthma. It restricts also the use of patient documents of asthmatics especially in detailed causal analysis, although they could give important information for research and administration. This article...

Malignant Mesothelioma: Experience at the Singapore General Hospital

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumour and is typically associated with asbestos exposure. In endemic areas, it has an estimated incidence as high as 66 per million for men aged 35 and above. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

Pulmonary Hypereosinophilia

Eosinophilic lung diseases encompass a heterogenous spectrum of lung disorders defined by increased eosinophils in blood and/or tissue. In 1952, Crofton et al proposed the term “pulmonary eosinophilia” for disorders characterised by chest radiographic infiltrates and peripheral eosinophilia. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download...

An Unusual Cause of Pulmonary Haemorrhage in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Strongyloides stercoralis is an intestinal nematode which causes a chronic but usually asymptomatic infection in humans. However, in immunocompromised patients, parasitic larvae can develop rapidly and re-invade the host. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

A Case Report of Occupational Asthma due to Gluteraldehyde Exposure

Worldwide, asthma is estimated to affect between 5% and 10% of the population and, among adults, 4% to 9% of these cases have been attributed to an occupational cause. Yet, only 3 cases were reported and confirmed in Singapore in the year 2000 – an incidence of only 0.14/100,000...

The Haze and Health: A Blog About the Fog

The haze is an atmospheric phenomenon where pollutant particles accumulate in the air and obscure the normal clarity of the sky. In Singapore, this usually happens when the prevailing southwest monsoon winds blow the smoke from regional forest fires to Singapore. This article is available only as a PDF. Please...

SARS: How to Manage Future Outbreaks?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which crossed from wild animals at live markets to man in mid-November 2002 in Guangdong, southern China. SARS was the first pandemic of the 21st century. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download...

The Clinical Predictors of Hypertension and Sleepiness in an Asian Population with Sleep-disordered Breathing

Sleep physicians have only recently began to learn much about the epidemiology of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) from large, well conducted prospective community-based studies. These studies have helped identify the risk factors for identifying sleep apnoea, particularly in the Western population. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click...

Sarcoidosis with Granulomatous Hepatitis and Autoimmune Endocrine Involvement

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown aetiology. It emerges in the form of hiler adenopathy and interstitial pulmonary disease in most cases. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Cardiovascular Changes in Children with Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a spectrum of diseases ranging from primary snoring to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). A recent review suggested that the prevalence of childhood OSA diagnosed by varying criteria was 1% to 4%. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

Obesity and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome in Singapore Children

Obesity is becoming a problem of epidemic proportions and is perhaps, the most pervasive medical problem faced by medical providers today. It is a problem affecting about 10% to 15% of our school-going population in Singapore, affecting disease burden in virtually every medical subspecialty. This article is available only as...

Sleep Disorders in Children: The Singapore Perspective

Sleep problems are common in children. For example, snoring occurs in more than 25% of Singapore children1 and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) occurs in 1% to 3% of children. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Diagnosis and Evaluation of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in Children

Children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) may present with nocturnal and/or diurnal symptoms. The history is best obtained from parents, or siblings who share a bedroom, since the child is often unaware of what happens when he or she is asleep. This article is available only as a PDF. Please...

The Scope of Paediatric Sleep Medicine

Despite apparent similarities to adult sleep medicine, the disorders of paediatric sleep medicine have a distinct epidemiology and pathophysiology. During childhood, the physiology of sleep develops and matures, resulting in changing patterns of normal behaviours and of sleep disorders. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on...

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in Singapore: Polysomnography Data From a Tertiary Sleep Disorders Unit

Overnight attended polysomnography (PSG) in the sleep laboratory has been the gold standard to confirm the presence and severity of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Standard PSG scoring rules using the criteria of Rechtschaffen and Kales have recently been revised and updated by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. This article...

Impact of the Singapore National Asthma Program (SNAP) on Preventor-Reliever Prescription Ratio in Polyclinics

According to the World Health Organization/Global Initiative on Asthma (WHO/GINA) report on the global burden of asthma, Singapore is an intermediate-risk country for asthma prevalence, which is about 5% of the population. But has one of the highest rates of asthma deaths in the world. This article is available only...

T Lymphocyte Activation Profiles in Peripheral Blood of Long-Versus Short-Term Residents of Kuwait: Comparison with Asthmatics

The Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 exposed the residents of Kuwait and several neighbouring countries to high levels toxicants with the capacity to cause long-term deleterious alterations in the immune reactivity. The impact of these influences on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of chronic illness in affected populations is...

Lung Cancer: Recent Advances

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related mortality in the world. It accounts for almost a million deaths annually and resulted in more deaths than prostate, breast and colon cancers combined. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view...

Difference in Asthma Control Test™ (ACT) Scores in Three Different Clinical Practice Settings

The prevalence of asthma ranges from 1% to 18% worldwide and it remains a significant cause of morbidity and economic burden despite advances in its knowledge, detection and treatment. Asthma is very common in Singapore and it consumes a considerable amount of healthcare service resources. This article is available only...

Clinical Features of Allergic Rhinitis and Skin Prick Test Analysis Based on the ARIA Classification: A Preliminary Study in Malaysia

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common disease worldwide and is known to cause serious implications to the physical and mental health status of the individual sufferer. It also impacts significantly on healthcare expenditure. For instance, the direct costs of allergic rhinitis in the United States (US) alone were approximately...

Sir John Wenman Crofton

Sir John Crofton, a world famous expert on the treatment of tuberculosis died in Edinburgh at the age of 97. John Crofton was born in Dublin in 1912, the son of a doctor. His earliest recollection was of hearing the bullets hitting the ceiling of his nursery in the...

Rapidly Vanishing Pulmonary Pseudotumour

A 51-year-old male ex-smoker with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis was referred for exertional dyspnoea for 5 days. He had no fever, cough or constitutional symptoms. Physical examination revealed stony dullness to percussion over the right lower thorax posteriorly. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on...

Plasma IP-10 could identify early lung disease in severe COVID-19 patients

Dear Editor, The global pandemic of SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has imposed tremendous strain on healthcare resources worldwide, as a significant proportion of patients require intensive care. Although the majority have mild infections, up to 20% are estimated to become critically ill from severe disease.1 Age, concurrent comorbidities, more severe...

Outcomes of second-tier rapid response activations in a tertiary referral hospital: A prospective observational study

Despite its widespread adoption, rapid response systems (RRS) and rapid response teams (RRT) vary significantly in composition and set-up.1-3 While implementation of RRSs appear to be associated with reduced cardiac arrest rate and improved mortality,4,5 their optimal composition, activation criteria and how they should be evaluated, remain controversial.6-9 It...

An Unusual Cause of Severe Pulmonary Hypertension in a Young Woman

Dear Editor, A 25-year-old Cambodian lady diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in her native country came for second opinion on the further management of her condition. She had become increasingly breathless in the last 2 years, with further deterioration from New York Heart Association (NYHA) II to III in the last...

Cognitive Aspect of Diagnostic Errors

It was an unusually busy ward round. The newly promoted registrar was keen to review the patients handed over to him. But there were constant distractions from the other things he needed to attend to quickly. The patient, Madam Sumar was referred by her family doctor for chest pain with...

Heterogeneity of non-cystic-fibrosis bronchiectasis in multiethnic Singapore: A prospective cohort study at a tertiary pulmonology centre

Bronchiectasis is a chronic lung disease of significant morbidity and mortality. The pathological hallmarks of the disease are abnormal dilatation of airways resulting from recurrent inflammation, airway obstruction and mucous plugging. The past 2 decades have seen a significant increase in its prevalence, exceeding the threshold of 5 per...

Impact of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with interstitial lung disease in Singapore

Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) encompass a heterogeneous group of lung parenchymal disorders. ILD-related symptoms impact significantly on quality of life (QoL). Dyspnoea is the most important factor determining health-related QoL in ILD; contributing factors include reduced exercise capacity, loss of mental well-being and social isolation. This article has been updated...

Radiological changes on chest CT following COVID-19 infection

COVID-19 infection is associated with high rates of hospitalisation and mortality, placing healthcare systems under strain. There are many reports regarding the non-contrast-enhanced high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) features of the lungs during the onset of COVID-19; however, few studies have described the radiological changes and outcome of residual lesions...

The Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic began in early December in Wuhan, the 7th most populous city in Mainland China, and was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 December 2019. An outbreak of unknown aetiology was suspected because many early cases were linked...

Controversies in Sepsis Management—What is the Way Forward?

Sepsis is a common and life-threatening medical condition which has high incidence and mortality rates. Health care professionals are increasingly familiar with this syndrome, and the public is increasingly conscious of its burden to society. A population survey conducted in Singapore in 2010 showed that 53 out of 1067...

Emergency airway management in a Singapore centre: A registry study

Emergency airways often present with little warning, and the need for airway management is necessary for a successful resuscitation. This is in contrast to most intubations performed in the operating room (OR). Additionally, difficult airways are more prevalent in emergency department (ED) populations due to acute conditions such as...

Rapid Progression to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Review of Current Understanding of Critical Illness from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection

In this report, we describe a patient who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with rapid clinical deterioration. Unfortunately, not much is known about the clinical features and risk factors for ARDS and critical illness even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb at an alarming rate...