1. The scope of respiratory tract infections / Michael S. Niederman -- 2. Host defense against infection in the airways / Pieter S. Hiemstra -- 3. Mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis in respiratory tract infection / Timothy F. Murphy -- 4. Acute bronchitis / Thomas J. Kufel -- 5. Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease / Himanshu Desai and Sanjay Sethi -- 6. Bronchiectasis / Paul King -- 7. Exacerbations of cystic fibrosis / Ruxana T. Sadikot -- 8. Community-acquired pneumonia / Elbio Mariano Esperatti and Antoni Torres Marti -- 9. Health care-associated pneumonia / Ali A. El Solh -- 10. Managing ventilator-associated pneumonia : antibiotic therapy and targeted prevention / Alexandra Chroneou, Nikolaos Zias, and Donald E. Craven -- 11. Pneumonia in ARDS / Jean-Damien Ricard, Didier Dreyfuss, and Damien Roux -- 12. Pulmonary infections in immunosuppressed patients / Rana Kaplan and Dorothy A. White -- 13. Respiratory infections in HIV-positive patients / Rosemary Boyton and Clare Sander -- 14. Tuberculosis / Chi-Chiu Leung and Wing-Wai Yew -- 15. Nontuberculous mycobacterial respiratory infections / Brendan J. Clark and Charles L. Daley -- 16. Fungal infections / Tom Lim, John H. MacGregor, and Christopher H. Mody -- 17. Emerging infections : influenza, avian influenza, and pandemic influenza / Alan J. Lesse -- 18. Emerging modalities for diagnosis (including biomarkers) / David R. Murdoch -- 19. New management modalities / Thomas M. File, Jr.