Mortality remains high among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension awaiting lung transplant, despite changes to the allocation system that were designed to reduce mortality and increase the equitable distribution of donor organs, according to new research out of University of California San Francisco.

Chronic inflammatory lung diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema are a major global health problem, and the fourth leading cause of death and disability in developed countries, with smoking accounting for 90% of the risk for developing them.

Using both animal and human cells, Duke University Medical Center scientists have demonstrated that a single lung cell can become one of two very different types of airway cells, which could lead to a better understanding of lung diseases.

Current research suggests that smoking increases the production of osteopontin in the lungs, which contributes to the development of smoking-related lung disease.

A new classification system of rare lung diseases in infants is improving diagnosis and treatment. The system clears up considerable confusion about how to classify and treat diseases that are rarely seen by most doctors and pathologists, says Gail H. Deutsch, M.D., lead author of the multi-center study that developed the new guidelines.

As the national blood banking community considers limiting the use plasma from female donors because of a rare but potentially catastrophic lung condition, researchers from Duke University Medical Center have shown that this policy change might be premature.

Diagnosing a risk of fatal lung disorders may be possible by analysing the umbilical cords of premature babies, according to research published in the online open access journal Genome Biology. Until now, paediatricians have not been able to predict the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) because of the difficulties with obtaining lung samples.

Patients with acute lung injury (ALI) are nearly one-third less likely to die if they are treated at ICUs that require board-certified critical care physicians to oversee patient care, as compared to patients treated at ICUs that allow any attending physician to oversee admission and case management.

Lung transplants have been performed successfully for more than 20 years in humans but never before in mice – until now. Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed the first mouse model of lung transplantation, and they’re hoping it will help explain why the success of the procedure in humans lags far behind other solid organ transplants.

The combined use of two minimally invasive techniques—endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) and electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB)-- in the diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions has been shown to be more effective than either procedure alone and does not compromise patients’ safety, according to a new study.

Young adults with a short temper or mean disposition also tend to have compromised lung function, says a recent study published in the journal Health Psychology, by the American Psychological Association (APA). This occurred even when asthma and smoking were ruled out as possible causes of lung dysfunction.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disorder from which most patients die within 5 years after diagnosis. The disease is characterized by the insidious onset of dyspnea or cough and usually evolves slowly.