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Turning Up the Heat on Asthma

Pulmonologists Provide Relief to Asthma Sufferers With New Drug-Free Treatment

October 1, 2010

Pulmonologists are using a new drug-free treatment to give asthma-sufferers a level of relief that traditional medications have not. While the patient is sedated, a special scope is inserted through the patient's mouth, down the windpipe, to help the doctor see inside the lungs. A catheter is then used in the main air passages to apply heat to the troubled areas-- portions of muscle that block airways during an asthma attack. The heat reduces the amount of this muscle, and after three of these 45-minute treatments administered over three months, asthmatic symptoms decrease.

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Science Insider

ASTHMA OR ALLERGIES? Asthma is a chronic disease affecting the airways that carry air in and out of the lungs. The inside walls of the airways become inflamed (swollen) and narrower so less air can flow through the lung tissues. This in turn causes wheezing, coughing, tightness in the chest, and trouble breathing. Asthma is linked to allergies, although not everyone with asthma has allergies. People with allergies tend to react more strongly to the presence of allergens such as animal dander, dust mites, pollen or mold, as well as cigarette smoke and air pollution.

COLD CAN ALSO TREAT: The video describes how heat is used to treat the lungs for asthma. Cold treatment is also used to treat ailments. Cryoablation is a form of surgery that freezes heart muscle to stop it from carrying those irregular electrical signals. It does not inject cold into tissue. Rather, it removes heat from the target area to slow cellular activity. To locate the target area, doctors cool (but do not freeze) the heart muscle to suspend electrical activity without damaging the tissue. This enables them to find out whether a particular area is causing the arrhythmia. Once doctors find out where the problem is, the catheter is placed at the target area and the temperature of its tip is lowered to -70 degrees Celsius. This freezes the tissue and kills the cells causing the arrhythmia.

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Asthma Treatment

To Go Inside This Science:
Terri Montgomery
Data Control Coordinator
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO 63110-1093
tmontgom@dom.wustl.edu
(314) 362-6904


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