Category: Pulmonology

Specialty: Pulmonary & Thoracic Surgery

Female, 30-years-old, Short of Breath: Could It Be LAM?

CT scan of LAM

The first-time patient at the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was typical: A female in her 30s, she had experienced dyspnea on exertion, unusual chest discomfort and fatigue for years. The otherwise healthy former athlete had seen multiple physicians, who ruled out cardiac issues and prescribed asthma meds, but symptoms persisted. When a CT scan was ordered for a suspected pulmonary embolus, none was found. But the scan revealed the real problem: Lung destruction that is characteristic of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Read More

Minimally Invasive POEM Succeeds for Achalasia and Other Esophageal Disorders

stent illustration for POEM

Motor disorders of the esophagus present a rare but serious challenge. But experience with Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy in the comprehensive esophageal practice at the Lung Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is showing benefits for its initial use in achalasia and for other motor disorders.

Jon O. Wee, MD, the section chief for esophageal surgery and co-director of minimally invasive thoracic surgery in the Division of Thoracic Surgery, was an early adopter of POEM and one of the first in New England to perform the procedure. He has performed more than 60 POEM procedures at Brigham and Women’s since 2013.

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New Modeling Shows Surprising Cumulative Risk of Lung Cancer among Non-Smokers

How can clinicians in the office setting identify non-smoking patients who are at risk of lung cancer – and therefore may be candidates for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) imaging?

That question has been a focus of Michael Jaklitsch, MD, a thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Jaklitsch is a long-time leader of initiatives and research in lung cancer screening and surveillance and co-creator of an online risk calculator. Read More

Hepatitis C-Infected Hearts and Lungs Safely Transplanted

As the number of patients in need of heart or lung transplants continues to exceed the number of donor organs that are viable and available, many patients die while waiting for a transplant. Through the DONATE HCV Trial, a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is expanding the donor pool by enabling transplantation from hepatitis C-infected donors.

In a recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, a multidisciplinary team of experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported a 100 percent success rate for transplant recipients who received lungs or a heart infected with hepatitis C (HCV).

Six months after transplantation, patients remained hepatitis C free and had functioning transplanted organs. The trial showed that a four-week antiviral treatment regimen started immediately following organ transplantation prevented HCV infection in all patients and led to excellent outcomes. Given the success of the trial, enrollment continues.

The DONATE HCV Trial is the largest clinical trial to date for HCV thoracic organ transplantation. “If even half the other centers in the United States were to adopt the Brigham protocol, we would, in fact, shorten the time to transplantation by nearly half,” says Mandeep Mehra, MD, medical director of the Heart & Vascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The team has enrolled 69 participants to date.

In the above video, hear more from the investigators pioneering this trial, including:

A Growing Case for Segmentectomy for Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers

photo of lung tissueDetection of lung cancers at an early stage, combined with advances in imaging technologies and surgical techniques, bolster the rationale for choosing VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) segmentectomy for patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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Pulmonary Genetics Center Demystifies Testing and Empowers Physicians

Situs inversus, a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs are reversed from normal positions. A physical examination confirmed the position of the heart.Over the past 20 years, more than 100 genes have been found that cause specific lung diseases, most of which can be tested for by DNA sequencing. However, interpreting and acting upon genetic test results can be a challenging task for any physician not trained in genetics.  The Pulmonary Genetics Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is bridging the gap by providing this expertise to patients and referring physicians and assisting them in navigating this complex new field.
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After the ICU: Patients’ Stories Spark Insight into ICU Survivorship

Daniella Lamas headshot and cover of her new book "You Can Stop Humming Now"What happens to patients after the ICU? That is the question examined by physician/writer Daniela Lamas, MD, in her book, You Can Stop Humming Now: A Doctor’s Stories of Life, Death and In Between.
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A Heart-Lung Transplantation Marks a New Era – for Patient and Hospital

3D Illustration of Human Body Organs (Lungs with Heart Anatomy)Building on pioneering work performed during the first wave of heart-lung transplantation, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has resumed its heart-lung program and is once again performing the rare procedure.

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Could a Cancer Protein Be a Target for Preventing Lung Vessel Scarring?

PET imaging of research

Although there is no cure for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital are unraveling the molecular mechanisms that may control PAH’s development and progression in an effort toward finding treatments that could halt its advancement. In Science Translational Medicine, researchers shared results from a study that identifies the cancer protein NEDD9 as a critical player in disease development, with potential therapeutic implications for patients with PAH.

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A Deeper Look at Severe Asthma Yields NET Results

Neutrophil cell (white blood cell) in blood smear, analyze by microscope

A study by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that models allergic lung inflammation provides new insight into how neutrophil cytoplasts can contribute to asthma severity. The results may have implications for developing drugs for people with severe asthma.

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