Canadian Thoracic Society Asthma Management Continuum –
2010 Consensus Summary for children six years of age and over, and adults Canadian Thoracic Society Asthma
Browsing Posts tagged asthma
Gene Therapy To Prevent Progression Of Emphysema Discovered By Researchers: “Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered a new gene therapy that may prevent the progression of emphysema. The study, which appears on-line in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describes a method to express therapeutic genes in lung tissue for a lifetime after only a single treatment…”
DLCO: The diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide, also known as
TLCO : Transfer factor of the lung for carbon monoxide.
Used to determine transfer of gas from the distal airspaces-alveoli into the pulmonary capillaries.
DLCO= V(.)CO/(PACO2-PC(-)CO
Where:
- V(.) = uptake of CO in ml of CO at STPD conditions/min
- PACO2 is the average partial pressure of CO in alveoli
- PC(-)CO is the average partial pressure of CO in the pulmonary capillary plasma.
(Hb) has a very high affinity for CO (200 times > then 02).
Partial Pressure of CO in plasma (PC(-)) =0 when COHb is low
As a result, DLCO=V(.)CO/PACO
Increases in DLCO occur in:
- Pulmonary hemorrhage
- Polycythemia
- Exercise
- Diseases with increased blood flow
- Asthma
Decreases in DLCO occur in:
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Emphysema
- Parenchymal lung disease (Fibrosis)
- Anemia
- CRF
The KidO’s Bear has a friendly, non-threatening appearance and has successfully provided aerosol and oxygen therapy for tens of thousands of patients.
Since it calms the anxious or agitated patient, the Bear’s design insures maximum compliance with breathing treatments for asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The Bear also incorporates direct delivery technology that focuses the administration of medication or oxygen thereby insuring that the patient receives maximum effectiveness and benefit from the treatment or therapy.
A blood test for diagnosing heart failure
By Richard N. Fogoros, M.D., About.com
When a patient shows up in the emergency room acutely short of breath, the possibilities are many. Is the shortness of breath due to asthma, a pulmonary embolus, heart failure, emphysema, or one of several other conditions? Many times doctors can find it difficult to make the right diagnosis – especially in people who have both heart and lung disease. Often an expensive test, such an an echocardiogram, must be performed to rule out heart failure in these cases – IF an echocardiographer can be cajoled out of bed in the middle of the night.
Now a rapid blood test can tell the clinician whether heart failure is present. The test measures a protein called B Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) a substance secreted by heart muscle that is failing.
In a report in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, BNP levels were measured in 250 patients coming to the hospital with shortness of breath. Of the 97 patients who actually had heart failure, the blood test accurately detected heart failure in 95%.
The BNP test, rapid, inexpensive and widely available, should immediately begin helping doctors make the correct diagnosis in patients with heart failure.
