Most lung abscesses (80-90%) are now successfully treated with antibiotics; however, this conservative approach may occasionally fail. When medical treatment fails, pulmonary resection is usually advised. Alternatively, percutaneous transthoracic tube drainage or endoscopic drainage can be considered, though both remain controversial. In this communication, the medical literature focusing on percutaneous tube drainage efficacy, indications, techniques, complications, and mortality, as well as available data regarding endoscopic drainage are reviewed.

Objective: Right middle lobe syndrome is a rare entity in children, causing high morbidity. Our experience of these patients including their clinical and laboratory characteristics, indications forsurgical management, postoperative courses, and follow-up results was evaluated. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed involving 20 children with right middle lobe syndrome who were hospitalized and treated with surgical resection of the right middle lobe in Van Training and Research Hospital and Yüzüncüyil university hospital, Turkey, between January 2002 and January 2011. Results: The mean age of the patients was 10.5 years (range, 5 to 15 years). Twelve patients were boys and eight were girls. The most frequent symptom was chronic cough (75%). Hemoptysis was present in two (10%) patients. One patient was being treated for asthma. 25% positive cultures were identified among the patients. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most frequently identified agent in sputum. All patients underwent chest computed tomography. There were bronchiectasis in 11 (55%) patients, atelectasis and bronchiectasis in five (25%) patients, and destroyed lung in four (20%) patients. A narrowed middle lobe bronchus was shown in 15 (75%) patients. Bronchoscopy was performed in 18 (90%) patients. Stenosis due to external compression was seen in 12 (60%) patients, hyperemia and bronchitis in two (10%) patients, granulation tissue in two (10%) patients, and dense secretions in two (10%) patients. A history of doctor-diagnosed tuberculosis was present in two (10%) patients. These patients had completed antituberculous treatment. The patients had been symptomatic for the last 1 to 10 years (mean, 4 years) and had received several medical treatments. All patients (totally 20 patients) underwent right middle lobe resection. In one patient, a bronchial abnormality was found intraoperatively. One patient died on postoperative day 10 due to a brain abscess. Three other patients had postoperative complications (15%). Mean duration of follow-up of the patients was 4.5 years (range, 2 months to 12 years). Seventeen patients were asymptomatic, and two patients had improved. Conclusions: Children with right middle lobe syndrome unresponsive to medical treatment should undergo early lobe resection to avoid serious complications and the progression of the disease to other segments or lobes.

Introduction: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence, patient's characteristic and reasons for defaulting follow-up and treatment among patients with lung cancer. Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed lung cancer were recruited. Patient's detailed demographic data, occupation, socioeconomic status, and educational level of both the patients and their children were recorded. Defaulters were classified as either intermittent or persistent defaulters. By using Chi-square test, defaulter status was compared with various demographic and disease characteristic factors. The reasons for default were determined. Results: Ninety five patients were recruited. Among them, 81.1% patients were males; 66.3% were Malays. The mean age (SD) was 60 ± 10.5 years. About 46.3% of the patients had Eastern Cooperation Oncology Group (ECOG) functional status 0/1 and 96.8% of the patients presented with advanced stage (Stage 3b or 4). Overall, 20 patients (21.1%) were defaulters (35.0% intermittent defaulters; 65.0% persistent defaulters). Among the intermittent defaulters, 8 patients defaulted once and one patient defaulted 3 times. Among the 20 defaulters, only 2 (10%) patients turned up for the second follow-up appointment after telephone reminder. Two main reasons for default were 'too ill to come' (38.5.5%) and logistic difficulties (23.1%). No correlation was found between patient education, children education, income, ECOG status, stage of the disease, race, and gender with the defaulter rate. Conclusion: Defaulter rate among lung cancer patients was 21.1%. Children education level is the only significant factor associated with the defaulter rate.

Context: Asthma is a complex inflammatory condition often associated with bronchial hyper reactivity and atopy. Genetic and environmental factors are implicated in the etiopathogenesis of asthma. Regulated upon Activation Normal T- cell Expressed and Secreted (RANTES) is a CC chemokine responsible for the recruitment of inflammatory cells, suggesting a possible role for this chemokine in asthma. Both -403A and -28G alleles of the RANTES promoter region were found to be associated with asthma/atopy in some but not all studies. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the genetic influence of -403A and -28G alleles of the RANTES promoter region on the development of asthma in Lebanon. Settings and Design: This case control study was conducted at Makassed Hospital, Beirut on 40 asthmatic patients and 38 healthy controls. Methods: RANTES gene polymorphisms -403G/A and -28C/G alleles were genotyped using PCR-RFLP. Results: No significant differences in allele or genotype frequencies for the RANTES gene polymorphisms between asthmatic patients and controls were found. The difference of the -403 GA genotype frequency between patients and controls was not statisti­cally significant; (OR=0.8, 95% CI=0.2-2.3, P=0.8). Similarly, the difference of the A-allele frequencies between patients and con­trols was not significant (OR=0.824, CI=0.3-2.2, P=0.7). Conclusions: Our data show that RANTES gene promoter polymorphisms are not associated with asthma susceptibility in the Lebanese population.

Background: Auto-fluorescence bronchoscopy (AFB) has been used for the identification and localization of intra-epithelial pre-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions within the bronchus. Objectives: To determine the applicability of AFB for the detection and localization of precancerous and cancerous lesions, in addition to analyzing the morphologic presentation, their association to histological type and the variation between genders. Methods: A five-year study involving 4983 patients, who underwent routine bronchoscopy [B] examination in a local tertiary teaching hospital, was done. The B examination was performed under intratracheal lidocaine, and samples were obtained using suitable approach. One thousand four hundred and eighty-five pathologically confirmed lung cancer patients were included in the study. The following parameters were studied: Morphological presentation, biopsy sites, histology. Differences between the groups were analyzed using Chi square test. Result: One thousand four hundred and eighty-five patients who had hyperplasia or neoplastic lesions were further confirmed as lung cancer pathologically. Lung cancer was more commonly found in the right lung (51.58% vs. 42.82%). The lesion occurred more frequently in the upper lobe than the lower lobe (44.17% vs. 22.42%). Male patients with squamous cell carcinoma showed upper lobe involvement more commonly, while the left main bronchus was more commonly involved in female patients. Adenocarcinoma mostly involved lesion of the upper lobe. Squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma were the major proliferative types (80.15% and 76.16% respectively). Conclusion: AFB is efficient in the detection of pre-invasive and invasive lung lesions. The morphological presentation is associated to the histological type. There is variation in the presentation and histology of cancerous lung lesions between genders.

Objective: This study was designed to compare the pattern of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) among obese and nonobese subjects regarding clinical and polysomnographic data obtained for a polysomnographic study. Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective descriptive study was conducted by analyzing polysomnographic data in 112 consecutive patients underwent a sleep study at our sleep laboratory from January 2009 to July 2010. Out of them, 81 were diagnosed to have OSA (apnea-hypopnoea Index ≥5). These patients were classified in two groups with body mass index (BMI) < 27.5 kg/m ² as nonobese and BMI≥27.5 kg/m ² as obese. Clinical as well as polysomnographic data were evaluated and compared between the two groups. Patients were also evaluated for other risk factors such as smoking, alcoholism, and use of sedatives. Data were subjected to statistical analysis (χ² -test, P value <0.05 considered to be significant). The Fisher Exact test was applied wherever the expected frequency for a variable was ≤5. Results: Of 81 patients with OSA, 36 (44.4%) were nonobese with a mean BMI of 26.62 ± 2.29 kg/m ² and 45 (55.6%) were obese with a mean BMI of 35.14 ± 3.74 kg/m ² . Mean AHI per hour was significantly more in the obese than in the nonobese group (50.09 ± 29.49 vs. 24.36 ± 12.17, P<0.001). The use of one or more sedatives was more in nonobese as compared to obese (58.3% vs. 24.4%, P=0.002). The obese group had significantly higher desaturation and arousal index (P<</i>0.001). The minimal oxygen saturation was lower in the obese than the nonobese group (68.5 ± 13.00 vs. 80.3 ± 7.40, P<</i>0.001) and was well below 90% in both groups. Overall, the OSA in nonobese patients was mild-to-moderate as compared to that of the obese and no significant differences were observed between them as regard to age, gender, mean neck circumference, excessive daytime sleepiness, adenoid or tonsillar enlargement, smoking, and remaining polysomnographic parameters. Conclusion: Obstructive sleep apnea can occur in nonobese persons though with less severity as compared to obese leading to a concept that OSA is not restricted to obese persons only and there is a high demand of its awareness regarding evaluation, diagnosis, and management in such individuals.

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the levels of hepcidin in the serum of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: In the study, 74 male patients (ages 45-75) in a stable period for COPD were grouped as Group I: Mild COPD (n:25), Group II: Moderate COPD (n:24), and Group III: Severe COPD (n:25). Healthy non-smoker males were included in Group IV (n:35) as a control group. The differences of hepcidin level among all the groups were examined. Also, in the patient groups with COPD, hepcidin level was compared with age, body mass index, cigarette (package/year), blood parameters (iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, hemoglobin, hematocrit [hct]), respiratory function tests, and arterial blood gas results. Results: Although there was no difference between the healthy control group and the mild COPD patient group (P=0.781) in terms of hepcidin level, there was a difference between the moderate (P=0.004) and the severe COPD patient groups (P=0.002). The hepcidin level of the control group was found to be higher than the moderate and severe COPD patient groups. In the severe COPD patients, hepcidin level increased with the increase in serum iron (P=0.000), hct (P=0.009), ferritin levels (P=0.012), and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO₂, P=0.000). Conclusion: The serum hepcidin level that is decreased in severe COPD brings into mind that it may play a role in the mechanism to prevent hypoxemia. The results suggest that serum hepcidin level may be a useful marker in COPD. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm our findings between hepcidin and COPD.

Background: Muslims are required to wake up early to pray (Fajr) at dawn (approximately one and one-half hours before sunrise). Some Muslims wake up to pray Fajr and then sleep until it is time to work (split sleep), whereas others sleep continuously (consolidated sleep) until work time and pray Fajr upon awakening. Aim: To objectively assess sleep architecture and daytime sleepiness in consolidated and split sleep due to the Fajr prayer. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional, single-center observational study in eight healthy male subjects with a mean age of 32.0 ± 2.4 years. Methods: The participants spent three nights in the Sleep Disorders Center (SDC) at King Khalid University Hospital, where they participated in the study, which included (1) a medical checkup and an adaptation night, (2) a consolidated sleep night, and (3) a split-sleep night. Polysomnography (PSG) was conducted in the SDC following the standard protocol. Participants went to bed at 11:30 PM and woke up at 7:00 AM in the consolidated sleep protocol. In the split-sleep protocol, participants went to bed at 11:30 PM, woke up at 3:30 AM for 45 minutes, went back to bed at 4:15 AM, and finally woke up at 7:45 AM. PSG was followed by a multiple sleep latency test to assess the daytime sleepiness of the participants. Results: There were no differences in sleep efficiency, the distribution of sleep stages, or daytime sleepiness between the two protocols. Conclusion: No differences were detected in sleep architecture or daytime sleepiness in the consolidated and split-sleep schedules when the total sleep duration was maintained.

"PHACES" is a neurocutaneous syndrome that refers to the following associations: Posterior fossa malformations, Hemangiomas, Arterial malformations, Coarctation of the aorta/Cardiac defects, Eye abnormalities, and Sternal defects. Herein, we report the association of PHACES syndrome with airway hemangioma, a serious association that should not be overlooked. The findings of such an association presented here are the first to be reported from Saudi Arabia.

Congenital H-type tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) in adults is a rare presentation and can test the diagnostic acumen of a surgeon, endoscopist, and the radiologist. These undetected fistulas may present as chronic lung disease of unknown origin because repeated aspirations can lead to recurrent lung infections and bronchiectasis. Congenital TEFs should be considered in the diagnosis of infants and young adults with recurrent respiratory distress and/or infections. Here, we present the successful management of this rare case in an adult patient.