Objective: To increase the knowledge base regarding pulmonology research in Brazil. Methods: A retrospective, observational study of the abstracts published in the Annals of the Brazilian Pulmonology and Phthisiology Conferences held from 1986 to 2004, quantifying the institutions of origin by geographic distribution and type, as well as categorizing the abstracts by study design and topic. Results: A total of 6467 abstracts were published. The institutions of origin were located, variously, in the Southeast (3870 abstracts), South (1309), Northeast (783), Central-West (267) and North (84). There were 94 abstracts originating from foreign institutions, especially from institutions in Portugal (56.3%) and the United States (13.8%). Most of the studies (5825) were conducted in public Brazilian institutions. There were 4234 clinical studies, 1994 case reports and 239 original research articles. A marked, progressive increase was observed in the number of clinical studies and case reports during the period evaluated. Overall, the most common themes were tuberculosis and other infections diseases (25.2%), following by oncology (11.6%), interstitial lung diseases (8.8%) and thoracic surgery (8.5%). Nevertheless, the number of abstracts on each topic varied widely from year to year. Conclusion: Public Brazilian institutions are the principal sources of pulmonology research in Brazil. Such research activity is concentrated in the southeastern part of the country. Case reports account for one-third of this activity. Although there was great variability in the subjects addressed, diseases that are highly prevalent in Brazil, such as tuberculosis and other infections diseases, were the most common topics.

Keywords: Biomedical research/statistics & numerical data; Respiratory tract diseases; Pulmonary disease (Speciality); Bibliometrics; Scientific and technical publications/statistics & numerical data; Brazil

Background: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is still an enigmatic disorder in many epidemiological and clinical features, remaining one of the most commonly misdiagnosed disorders. Objective: To describe the prevalence and pathological findings of PTE in a series of autopsies, to correlate these findings with underlying diseases, and to verify the frequency of PTE clinically suspected before death. Method: The reports on 5261 consecutive autopsies performed from 1979 to 2002 in a Brazilian tertiary referral medical school were reviewed for a retrospective study. From the medical records and autopsy reports of the patients found with macroscopically and/or microscopically documented PTE, were gathered data on demographics, underlying diseases, antemortem suspicion of PTE, and probable PTE site of origin. Results: The autopsy rate was 42.0% and PTE was found in 544 patients. In 225 cases, PTE was the main cause of death (fatal PTE). Infections (p=0.0003) were associated with nonfatal PTE and trauma (p=0.007) with fatal PTE. The rate of antemortem unsuspected PTE was 84.6% and 40.0% of these patients presented fatal PTE. Diseases of the circulatory system (p=0.0001), infections (p<0.0001), diseases of the digestive system (p=0.0001), neoplasia (p=0.024) and trauma (p=0.005) were associated with unsuspected PTE. The most frequent PTE site of origin was the lower limbs (48.9%). Probable PTE sites of origin such as right-sided cardiac chambers (p=0.012) and pelvic veins (p=0.015) were associated with fatal PTE. Conclusion: A large number of cases do not have antemortem suspicion of PTE. Special attention should be paid to the possibility of PTE in patients with diseases of the circulatory system, infections, diseases of the digestive system, neoplasia, and trauma.

Keywords: Autopsy. Epidemiology. Pulmonary Thromboembolism.

Objective: To study the clinical, radiological, and histopathological patterns of transbronchial biopsy (TBB) used in order to confirm the diagnosis in patients with clinical suspicion of interstitial lung disease (ILD) treated at a tertiary-care university hospital. Methods: We reviewed the medical records, radiology reports, and reports of transbronchial biopsies from all patients with suspected ILD who underwent TBB between January of 1999 and December of 2006 at the Hospital das Clínicas de Botucatu, located in the city of Botucatu, Brazil. Results: The study included 56 patients. Of those, 11 (19.6%) had a definitive diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the rate of which was significantly higher in the patients in which ILD was a possible diagnosis in comparison with those in which ILD was the prime suspect (p = 0.011), demonstrating the contribution of TBB to the diagnostic confirmation of these diseases. The histopathological examination of the biopsies revealed that 27.3% of the patients with IPF showed a pattern of organizing pneumonia, which suggests greater disease severity. The most common histological pattern was the indeterminate pattern, reflecting the peripheral characteristic of IPF. However, the fibrosis pattern showed high specificity and high negative predictive value. For CT scan patterns suggestive of IPF, the ROC curve showed that the best relationship between sensitivity and specificity occurred when five radiological alterations were present. Honeycombing was found to be strongly suggestive of IPF (p = 0.01). Conclusions: For ILDs, chest CT should always be performed, and TBB should be used in specific situations, according to the suspicion and distribution of lesions.

Keywords: Lung diseases, interstitial; Diagnosis, differential; Bronchoscopy.