James H. Roum, MD, PhD, Pulmonologist - UCI Lung Center, Orange, CA - Pulmonologists, Univ. of California, Irvine

UCI Lung Center
University of California, Irvine

James H. Roum, MD, PhD
Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
Director, Medical Intensive Care
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Roum has been a member of the pulmonary and critical care faculty at UCI since 1992. He received his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California, and completed his doctorate in medicine from the University of California, Irvine. He also received his PhD in physiology and biophysics from the University of California, Irvine. His pulmonary training was through the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and his critical care training through the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Roum serves as director of medical intensive care at UCIMC, and also serves as the fellowship program director the pulmonary and critical care division. His main areas of focus include education, patient care, and service as the hospitalist program's intensivist. His areas of clinical expertise include particular aspects of critical care, such as the management of severe sepsis and the adult respiratory distress syndrome, diagnosis and management of a variety of interstitial lung diseases, management of adults with cystic fibrosis, and diagnosis and management of a variety of occupational lung diseases.
Basic and clinical research has played a prominent role in Dr. Roum's career. As a native of Southern California, he developed an early interest in the detrimental effects of air pollution on lung function, and subsequently studied the effect of ozone on airway hyperreactivity as the topic of his PhD dissertation. While serving as a medical staff fellow at the NIH, he turned his attention to the role of oxidants in a variety of lung diseases, and examined the ability of various native lung antioxidants, such as glutathione, to counteract these effects. His work while serving on the faculty at UCI has expanded to include study of lung antioxidant regulation using an in vitro model of the lung alveolus, as well as study of newer antioxidant agents such as s-nitrosoglutatione, which may provide both antioxidant protection as well as improved perfusion of lung tissue, among other potential benefits. Additionally, Dr. Roum has served as the principal investigator for a variety of clinical sponsored projects at UCIMC; these have involved novel therapies for life-threatening diseases encountered in intensive care such as severe sepsis and the adult respiratory distress syndrome and diagnostic and therapeutic modalities for a number of other inpatient and outpatient pulmonary disorders.
Dr. Roum strives to help UCIMC achieve its mission. He has concentrated his efforts to improve the educational process; examples include the development of a formal didactic curricula for the intensive care rotation as well as holding regularly scheduled clinical chest radiographic rounds for medical students. He has also pursued improved patient care and quality management through a team approach, by instituting regularly scheduled formal interdisciplinary rounds in the intensive care unit; these integrate the best efforts of the house staff, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, case managers and social workers in reaching for the best possible patient care and clinical outcomes.
Selected publications:
Roum JH, Murlas CG. Ozone-induced changes in muscarinic bronchial reactivity by different testing methods. J Appl Physiol 1984; 57:1783-9.
Murlas CJ, Roum JH. Sequence of pathologic changes in the airway mucosa of guinea pigs during ozone-induced bronchial hyperreactivity. Am Rev Resp Dis 1985; 131:314-20.
Murlas CG, Roum JH. Bronchial hyperreactivity occurs in steroid-treated guinea pigs depleted of leukocytes by cyclophosphamide. J Appl Physiol 1985; 58:1630-7.
Roum JH, Murlas CG. Effects of propranolol and indomethacin on muscarinic airway reactivity in unanesthetized guinea pigs. Prc Soc Exp Biol Med 1986; 181:569-74.
Borok Z, Buhl R, Grimes G, Bokser A, Hubbard RC, Holroyd KJ, Roum JH, Czerski DB, Cantin AM, Crystal RG. Effect of glutathione aerosol on oxidant-antioxidant imbalance in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Lancet 1991; 338:215-216.
Buhl R, Jaffe HA, Holroyd KJ, Borok Z, Roum JH, Mastrangeli A, Wells FB, Saltini C, Crystal RG. Activation of alveolar macrophages in asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals. J Immunol 1993; 150:1019-1028.
Gillissen A, Roum JH, Hoyt RF, Crystal RG. Aerosolization of superoxide dismutase augmentation of respiratory epithelial lining fluid antioxidant screen by aerosolization of recombinant human Cu++/Zn++ superoxide dismutase. Chest 1993; 104:811-15.
Roum JH, Buhl R, McElvaney NG, Borok Z, Crystal RG. Systemic deficiency of glutathione in cystic fibrosis. J Appl Physiol 1993; 75:2419-2424.
Holroyd KJ, Buhl R, Borok Z, Roum JH, Bokser AD, Grimes GGJ, Czerski D, Cantin AM, Crystal RG. Correction of the glutathione deficiency in the lower respiratory tract of HIV-seropositive individuals by glutathione aerosol therapy. Thorax 1993; 48:985-989.
Travis WD, Borok Z, Roum JH, Zhang J, Fuerstein I, Ferrans VJ, Crystal RG. Pulmonary Langerhans' cell granulomatosis (histiocytosis X): a clinicopathologic study of 48 cases. Am J Surg Pathol 1993; 17:971-986.
Tehrani FT, Roum JH. Closed loop control of artificial respiration. IEEE Wescon/96 Conference Proceedings. 1996. 229-258.
Roum JH, Borok Z, McElvaney NG, Grimes GJ, Bokser AD, Buhl R, Crystal RG. Glutathione aerosol suppresses lung epithelial surface inflammatory cell-derived oxidants in cystic fibrosis. J Applied Physiol 1999; 87(1):438-443.
Roum JH, Aledia AS, Carungcong LA, Kim K-J, Borok Z. Extracellular glutathione inhibits oxygen-induced permeability changes in alveolar epithelial monolayers. J Applied Physiol 2001; 91:748-54.
Aledia AA, Tran LM, King BO, Serna DL, Eng J, Jones BU, Chen JC, Roum JH. S-nitrosoglutathione preserves platelet function during in vitro ventricular assist device circulation. ASAIO Journal 2002; 48:526-31.

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