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Aparna Swaminathan

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine
DUMC 103000, Durham, NC 27710
Room 2077 MSRB II, 2 Genome Court, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications


Development and evaluation of a questionnaire to capture environmental and occupational inhalational exposures in adults with fibrotic interstitial lung disease.

Journal Article Respir Res · October 15, 2024 BACKGROUND: Identification of exposures in patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) is essential for diagnosis and management and can be facilitated through the use of exposure questionnaires. However, for most ILDs, a patient-focused questionnaire ... Full text Link to item Cite

Design and baseline characteristics of the ILD-PRO registry in patients with progressive pulmonary fibrosis.

Journal Article BMC Pulm Med · September 27, 2024 BACKGROUND: To assess the characteristics of patients enrolled in the ILD-PRO Registry. METHODS: The ILD-PRO Registry is a multicentre US registry of patients with progressive pulmonary fibrosis. This registry is enrolling patients with an interstitial lun ... Full text Link to item Cite

An App Platform-Facilitated Collaborative Palliative Care Intervention for Outpatients With Interstitial Lung Disease: A Pilot Randomized Trial.

Journal Article Am J Hosp Palliat Care · August 19, 2024 Rationale: Outpatients with interstitial lung disease often experience serious symptoms, yet infrequently receive palliative care. Objective: To determine the feasibility and clinical impact of a mobile application (PCplanner) in an outpatient setting. Met ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quality of Life in Adults with Chronic Cough: A Mixed Methods Study Informing the Development of a Quantitative Patient Preference Study.

Journal Article Patient · May 2024 OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe quality of life for patients with chronic cough (CC) and identify meaningful attributes that affect patient treatment preferences to inform the design of a quantitative preference study. METHODS: Eligible patients ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patient preferences for the treatment of chronic cough: a discrete choice experiment.

Journal Article BMJ Open Respir Res · January 19, 2024 BACKGROUND: Chronic cough is common, negatively affects quality of life and has limited treatment options. Inhibition of purinergic signalling is a promising therapeutic approach but is associated with taste-related adverse effects. Little is known about t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functional gas exchange measures on 129Xe MRI and spectroscopy are associated with age, sex, and BMI in healthy subjects.

Journal Article Front Med (Lausanne) · 2024 INTRODUCTION: Hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI and spectroscopy is a rapidly growing technique for assessing lung function, with applications in a wide range of obstructive, restrictive, and pulmonary vascular disease. However, normal variations in 129Xe measures ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI and spectroscopy of gas exchange abnormalities in chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Journal Article Respir Med · 2024 PURPOSE: To evaluate 3D gas-exchange functional imaging characteristics using 129Xe MRI in a group of study participants with chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (CHP) as compared with healthy control participants. METHODS: In this prospective study, 11 p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prevalence and significance of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential in lung transplant recipients.

Journal Article BMC Pulm Med · October 30, 2023 BACKGROUND: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), the age-related acquisition of somatic mutations that leads to an expanded blood cell clone, has been associated with development of a pro-inflammatory state. An enhanced or dysregulated i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characteristics of patients with progressive fibrosing ILDs in the ILD-PRO Registry

Conference Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias · September 9, 2023 Full text Cite

External Control Arms in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Using Clinical Trial and Real-World Data Sources.

Journal Article Am J Respir Crit Care Med · September 1, 2023 Rationale: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease for which novel therapies are needed. External controls (ECs) could enhance IPF trial efficiency, but the direct comparability of ECs versus concurrent controls is unknown. Object ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of Frailty Measures and Short-term Outcomes After Lung Transplantation.

Journal Article Chest · July 2023 BACKGROUND: Frailty, measured as a single construct, is associated variably with poor outcomes before and after lung transplantation. The usefulness of a comprehensive frailty assessment before transplantation is unknown. RESEARCH QUESTION: How are multipl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pregnancy Outcomes in Patients With Interstitial Lung Disease.

Conference Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) · May 2023 OBJECTIVE: Women with interstitial lung disease (ILD) are recommended to avoid pregnancy based on limited data. This study seeks to determine maternal and pregnancy outcomes in the largest-to-date cohort of patients with ILD. METHODS: Medical records in th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using hyperpolarized 129Xe gas-exchange MRI to model the regional airspace, membrane, and capillary contributions to diffusing capacity.

Journal Article J Appl Physiol (1985) · May 1, 2021 Hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI has emerged as a novel means to evaluate pulmonary function via 3D mapping of ventilation, interstitial barrier uptake, and RBC transfer. However, the physiological interpretation of these measurements has yet to be firmly establis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Advances in Human Lung Transplantation.

Journal Article Annu Rev Med · January 27, 2021 Lung transplantation improves survival and quality of life in patients with advanced pulmonary disease. Over the past several decades, the volume of lung transplants has grown substantially, with increasing transplantation of older and acutely ill individu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment-related biomarkers in pulmonary hypertension patients on oral therapies.

Journal Article Respir Res · November 19, 2020 BACKGROUND: Multiple classes of oral therapy are available for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but there is little to guide clinicians in choosing a specific regimen or therapeutic class. We aimed to investigate whether treatment-re ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Treatment-related biomarkers in pulmonary hypertension patients on oral therapies

Journal Article · November 6, 2020 AbstractBackground: Multiple classes of oral therapy are available for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but there is little to guide clinicians in choosing a specific r ... Full text Cite

Treatment-related Biomarkers in Pulmonary Hypertension Patients on Oral Therapies

Journal Article · August 24, 2020 AbstractBackground: Multiple classes of oral therapy are available for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but there is little to guide clinicians in choosing a specific r ... Full text Cite

Disease Severity and Quality of Life in Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the IPF-PRO Registry.

Journal Article Chest · May 2020 BACKGROUND: Limited data are available on the association between clinically measured disease severity markers and quality of life (QOL) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The study examined the associations between objective disease severity metrics ... Full text Link to item Cite

Overview and Challenges of Bronchiolar Disorders.

Journal Article Ann Am Thorac Soc · March 2020 Bronchiolar abnormalities are common and can occur in conditions that affect either the large airways or the more distal parenchyma. In this review, we focus on the diagnosis and management of primary bronchiolar disorders, or conditions in which bronchiol ... Full text Link to item Cite

Diverse cardiopulmonary diseases are associated with distinct xenon magnetic resonance imaging signatures.

Journal Article Eur Respir J · December 2019 BACKGROUND: As an increasing number of patients exhibit concomitant cardiac and pulmonary disease, limitations of standard diagnostic criteria are more frequently encountered. Here, we apply noninvasive 129Xe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectrosco ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Lung Transplant Outcomes in Patients With Pulmonary Fibrosis With Telomere-Related Gene Variants.

Journal Article Chest · September 2019 BACKGROUND: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is the most common disease indication for lung transplantation. Our recent work implicated an excess of rare genetic variants in the telomere-related genes TERT, RTEL1, and PARN in PF disease risk. The impact of such var ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving Timely Resident Follow-Up and Communication of Results in Ambulatory Clinics Utilizing a Web-Based Audit and Feedback Module.

Journal Article J Grad Med Educ · April 2017 BACKGROUND: Failure to follow up and communicate test results to patients in outpatient settings may lead to diagnostic and therapeutic delays. Residents are less likely than attending physicians to report results to patients, and may face additional barri ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Diagnosis of Capnocytophaga canimorsus Sepsis by Whole-Genome Next-Generation Sequencing.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · September 2016 We report the case of a 60-year-old man with septic shock due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus that was diagnosed in 24 hours by a novel whole-genome next-generation sequencing assay. This technology shows great promise in identifying fastidious pathogens, and ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Toward Theranostic Biomarkers In Pulmonary Hypertension

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE · January 1, 2016 Link to item Cite

Treatment-related biomarkers in pulmonary hypertension.

Journal Article Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol · June 2015 Significant advances in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) over the last two decades have led to the introduction of multiple classes of oral therapy, but the disease remains devastating for many patients. Disease progression, in spite ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

The impact of a measurement and feedback intervention on blood pressure control in ambulatory cardiology practice.

Journal Article Am Heart J · April 2014 BACKGROUND: Although hypertension is a modifiable cardiovascular risk factor, up to one-third of ambulatory patients have uncontrolled blood pressure (BP). We evaluated the impact of a targeted provider feedback intervention on rates of BP control. METHODS ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lower extremity amputation in peripheral artery disease: improving patient outcomes.

Journal Article Vasc Health Risk Manag · 2014 Peripheral artery disease affects over eight million Americans and is associated with an increased risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, functional limitation, and limb loss. In its most severe form, critical limb ischemia, patients are often treated ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of antihypertensive therapy on incident stroke in cohorts with prehypertensive blood pressure levels: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Journal Article Stroke · February 2012 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Compared with normotensive individuals, there is a higher incidence of stroke in patients with hypertensive, as well as prehypertensive, blood pressure levels (ie, 120-139/80-89 mm Hg). Although several studies have shown that blood ... Full text Link to item Cite