Perspectives on invasive and noninvasive ventilatory support for critically ill patients are evolving, as much evidence indicates that ventilation may have positive effects on patient survival and the quality of the care provided in intensive care units in Brazil. For those reasons, the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine (Associação de Medicina Intensiva Brasileira - AMIB) and the Brazilian Thoracic Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisiologia - SBPT), represented by the Mechanical Ventilation Committee and the Commission of Intensive Therapy, respectively, decided to review the literature and draft recommendations for mechanical ventilation with the goal of creating a document for bedside guidance as to the best practices on mechanical ventilation available to their members. The document was based on the available evidence regarding 29 subtopics selected as the most relevant for the subject of interest. The project was developed in several stages, during which the selected topics were distributed among experts recommended by both societies with recent publications on the subject of interest and/or significant teaching and research activity in the field of mechanical ventilation in Brazil. The experts were divided into pairs that were charged with performing a thorough review of the international literature on each topic. All the experts met at the Forum on Mechanical Ventilation, which was held at the headquarters of AMIB in São Paulo on August 3 and 4, 2013, to collaboratively draft the final text corresponding to each sub-topic, which was presented to, appraised, discussed and approved in a plenary session that included all 58 participants and aimed to create the final document.

Keywords: Recommendations; Mechanical Ventilation; Respiratory Insufficiency.

Perspectives on invasive and noninvasive ventilatory support for critically ill patients are evolving, as much evidence indicates that ventilation may have positive effects on patient survival and the quality of the care provided in intensive care units in Brazil. For those reasons, the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine (Associação de Medicina Intensiva Brasileira - AMIB) and the Brazilian Thoracic Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisiologia - SBPT), represented by the Mechanical Ventilation Committee and the Commission of Intensive Therapy, respectively, decided to review the literature and draft recommendations for mechanical ventilation with the goal of creating a document for bedside guidance as to the best practices on mechanical ventilation available to their members. The document was based on the available evidence regarding 29 subtopics selected as the most relevant for the subject of interest. The project was developed in several stages, during which the selected topics were distributed among experts recommended by both societies with recent publications on the subject of interest and/or significant teaching and research activity in the field of mechanical ventilation in Brazil. The experts were divided into pairs that were charged with performing a thorough review of the international literature on each topic. All the experts met at the Forum on Mechanical Ventilation, which was held at the headquarters of AMIB in São Paulo on August 3 and 4, 2013, to collaboratively draft the final text corresponding to each sub-topic, which was presented to, appraised, discussed and approved in a plenary session that included all 58 participants and aimed to create the final document.

Keywords: Recommendations; Mechanical Ventilation; Respiratory Insufficiency.

Background: Obesity can effect the thorax, diphragm and abdominal muscles, thereby resulting in altered respiratory function. Objective: To evaluate the effects of obesity and to determine whether body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference correlate with spirometry values in obese individuals. Method: We studied 96 non-smokers of both sexes, 48 suffering from class I and class II obesity and ranging in age rom 18 to 75. All participants presented a BMI between 30 kg/m2 and 40 kg/m2 and none had a history of morbidity. Spirometry was performed, and waist circumferences were measured. Results: No significant differences were found between the spirometric values of men with class I or II obesity and those of non-obese men. In obese women, forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) were significantly lower than in women who were not obese. Obese individuals of both sexes presented significantly lower expiratory reserve volume (ERV) than did non-obese individuals. Although inspiratory capacity was greater in obese men and women, the difference was significant only for the men. In obese men, there was a significant negative correlation, not seen in the women, between waist circumference and FEV1. Conclusion: Pulmonary function is altered in women suffering from class I and II obesity. In obese men, although pulmonary function is unaffected by BMI, we observed a significant negative correlation between BMI and ERV. We can conclude that pulmonary function is influenced by waist circumference in men suffering from class I and II obesity.

Keywords: Respiratory function tests. Spirometry. Body mass index. Obesity.

Objective: To evaluate the quality of diagnosis and the epidemiological profile of patients with pleural tuberculosis in the state of Roraima, Brazil, in order to provide technical support for the development and implementation of public policies to combat the disease. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study designed to determine the prevalence of pleural forms of tuberculosis in Roraima between 2005 and 2013 and to evaluate the diagnostic criteria used, as well as their determinants. This study was based on secondary data from the Brazilian Case Registry Database, including all reported cases of pleural tuberculosis in the state during the study period. Diagnoses based on bacteriological or histopathological confirmation were defined as high-quality diagnoses. Results: Among the 1,395 cases of tuberculosis reported during the study period, 116 (8.3%) were cases of pleural tuberculosis, accounting for 38.9% of all cases of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in the sample. The incidence rate of pleural tuberculosis did not follow the downward trend observed for the pulmonary form of the disease during the same period. The prevalence of cases with a high-quality diagnosis was 28.5% (95% CI: 20.4-37.6%). In a univariate analysis, none of the demographic or clinical characteristics collected from the database were found to have a significant impact on the outcome (as explanatory variables). Conclusions: The quality of the diagnoses in our study sample was considered unsatisfactory. Limited access to specific diagnostic methods might have contributed to these results.

Keywords: Tuberculosis/diagnosis; Tuberculosis/epidemiology; Tuberculosis, pleural.

Objective: To analyze the clinicopathological aspects of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) and the survival in a sample of patients at clinical stage I. Methods: A retrospective study involving 26 patients diagnosed with clinical stage I BAC and undergoing surgery at the Thoracic Diseases Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 1987 and 2007. We analyzed clinicopathological and radiological aspects, as well as mortality and survival. The data, which were collected from the medical charts of the patients, were statistically analyzed. Results: Females predominated (n = 16). The mean age at diagnosis was 68.5 years. Most patients were active smokers (69.2%). The most common forms of presentation of BAC were the asymptomatic form (84.6%) and the nodular form (88.5%). Involvement of the upper lobes predominated (57.7%). Stage IB was the most common pathological stage, followed by stages IA and IIB (46.2%, 38.4% and 15.4%, respectively). There was no in-hospital mortality. Four patients died during the postoperative follow-up, with a mean disease-free survival time of 21.3 months. The overall five-year survival rate was 83%. The probability of survival for the patients diagnosed after 1999 showed a trend toward an increase when compared with that for those diagnosed up through 1999 (three-year survival rate: 92% vs. 68%; p = 0.07). Conclusions: The clinicopathological aspects of this study sample were similar to those of patients with BAC evaluated in previous studies.

Keywords: Adenocarcinoma, bronchiolo-alveolar; Carcinoma, non-small-cell lung; Lung; Smoking.

Objectives: To determine the trend of self-reported asthma diagnosed prevalence and to describe the factors associated with asthma in Brazilian adults. Method: Epidemiological cross-sectional study based on databases analysis from three national household surveys: Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) 2003, PNAD 2008 and Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde (PNS) 2013. Participants between 18-45 years old were included. Trend analysis of asthma diagnosed prevalence was conducted using a logistic general linear model. A hierarchical logistic regression model was used to select factors significantly associated with asthma prevalence. Results: Asthma diagnosed prevalence was 3.6% (2003), 3.7% (2008) and 4.5% (2013), showing a statistically significant increased trend. Asthma diagnosed prevalence also increased when analysed by gender (annual change for men: 2.47%, p < 0.003; women: 2.16%, p < 0.001), urban area (annual change for urban: 2.15%, p < 0.001; rural: 2.69%, p = 0.072), healthcare insurance status (annual change without healthcare insurance: 2.18%, p < 0.001; with healthcare insurance: 1.84%, p = 0.014), and geographic regions (annual change North: 4.68%, p < 0.001; Northeast: 4.14%, p < 0.001; and Southeast: 1.84%, p = 0.025). Female gender, obesity, living in urban areas and depression were associated with asthma diagnosed prevalence. Discussion: PNAD and PNS surveys allow for a very large, representative community-based sample of the Brazilian adults to investigate the asthma prevalence. From 2003 to 2013, the prevalence of self-reported physician diagnosis of asthma increased, especially in the North and Northeast regions. Gender, region of residence, household location (urban/rural), obesity, and depression diagnosis seem to play significant roles in the epidemiology of asthma in Brazil.

Keywords: Adults; Asthma; Logistic models; Prevalence; Risk factors.

Objective: To compare clinical and pathological staging in patients with non-small cell lung cancer submitted to surgical treatment, as well as to identify the causes of discordance. Methods: Data related to patients treated at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul São Lucas Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were calculated for clinical stages IA, IB, and IIB. The kappa index was used to determine the concordance between clinical and pathological staging. Results: Of the 92 patients studied, 33.7% were classified as clinical stage IA, 50% as IB, and 16.3% as IIB. The concordance between clinical and pathological staging was 67.5% for stage IA, 54.3% for IB, and 66.6% for IIB. The accuracy of the clinical staging was greater for stage IA, and a kappa of 0.74, in this case, confirmed a substantial association with pathological staging. The difficulty in evaluating nodal metastatic disease is responsible for the low concordance in patients with clinical stage IB. Conclusions: The concordance between clinical and pathological staging is low, and patients are frequently understaged (in the present study, only one case was overstaged). Strategies are necessary to improve clinical staging and, consequently, the treatment and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Keywords: Neoplasm staging; Lung neoplasms/diagnosis; Lung neoplasms/surgery; Prognosis.