Pulmonary

Diseases

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) – Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs.
• Asthma – Asthma is a chronic, or long-term, condition that intermittently inflames and narrows the airways in the lungs.
• Lung Nodule – A small round or oval-shaped growth in the lung.
• Emphysema – A type of COPD involving damage to the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs, so your body does not get the oxygen it needs. May experience chronic cough and trouble breathing during exercise. Commonly caused by smoking.
• Bronchiectasis – A condition in which the lungs’ airways become damaged, making it hard to clear mucus.
• Sarcoidosis – The growth of tiny collections of inflammatory cells in different parts of the body.
• Pulmonary Hypertension – A type of high blood pressure that affects arteries in the lungs and in the heart.
• Interstitial Lung Diseases – A group of disorders that cause progressive scarring of lung tissue.
• Chronic Bronchitis – Inflamed bronchial tubes produce a lot of mucus leading to coughing and difficulty breathing. Most common cause is cigarette smoking is the most common cause. Breathing in air pollution, fumes, or dust over a long period of time may also cause it.
• Lung Cancer – A cancer that begins in the lungs and most often occurs in people who smoke.
• Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis – A disease of the lungs in which your lungs become inflamed as an allergic reaction to inhaled dust, fungus, molds or chemicals.
• Pneumonia – Infection that inflames air sacs in one or both lungs, which may fill with fluid.

Methacholine Challenge:
Provocholine (methacholine chloride)

is a cholinergic drug that causes wheezing and shortness of breath and is used as a test to determine whether you may have asthma. Provocholine is only administered in a clinical setting and is used for testing and not to treat any conditions.

6 Minute Walk Test

The American Thoracic Society describes the six-minute walk test as a measure of functional status or fitness. It is used as a simple measure of aerobic exercise capacity. The results of this test may or may not lead your doctor to do more sophisticated measures of your heart and lung function. During this test, you walk at your normal pace for six minutes. This test can be used to monitor your response to treatments for heart, lung and other health problems. This test is commonly used for people with pulmonary hypertension, interstitial lung disease, pre-lung transplant evaluation or COPD.

Overnight Pulse Oximetry To Evaluate Nocturnal Hypoxia:

Overnight (nocturnal) home oximetry is a test to. monitor and record the level of oxygen in your blood as you sleep through the night at home. With this test, an oxygen sensor is clipped to your finger and connected to a machine called anoximeter.

Bronchoscopy

Bronchoscopy is a procedure that helps look inside the airway of the lungs. It involves inserting a bronchoscope tube, with its light and small camera, through your nose or mouth, down your throat into your trachea, or windpipe, and to the bronchi and bronchioles of your lungs. This procedure is used to find the cause of a lung problem. It can detect tumors, signs of infection, excess mucus in the airways, bleeding, or blockages in the lungs. It also can allow your doctor to take samples of mucus or tissue for other laboratory tests, as well as to insert airway stents, or small tubes, to keep your airway open to treat some lung problems.

The procedure is performed using a flexible bronchoscope or a rigid bronchoscope. Flexible bronchoscopy is more common than rigid bronchoscopy, and flexible bronchoscopy usually does not require general anesthesia. Before the procedure, you will be given medicine to relax you. A liquid medicine also will be given to numb your nose and throat. If you have low blood oxygen levels during the procedure, you will be treated with oxygen therapy. If you have a lot of bleeding in your lungs or a large object is stuck in your airway, you may require rigid bronchoscopy in a hospital operating room under general anesthesia.

After the procedure, you will be monitored to make sure you don’t have complications. You may experience a sore throat, cough, or hoarseness that will go away with time. If you had the procedure as an outpatient, you likely will be able to go home after a few hours, but you will need a ride home because of the medicines or anesthesia you received. You will need to follow up with your doctor after the procedure to get your results.

Bronchoscopy is usually safe, but there is a small risk for fever, minor bleeding, or pneumonia. Pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, is a rare but serious side effect that can be treated. Your doctor may do a chest x ray after the procedure to check for lung problems.

Chest Ultrasound

A chest ultrasound is a noninvasive diagnostic exam that produces images, which used to assess the organs and structures within the chest, such as the lungs, mediastinum (area in the chest containing the heart, aorta, trachea, esophagus, thymus, and lymph nodes), and pleural space (space between the lungs and the interior wall of the chest).

Thoracentesis

Thoracentesis is a procedure that a provider uses to drain extra fluid from around the lungs (pleural space) with a needle. It’s used to test the fluid for infection or other illnesses and to relieve chest pressure that makes it tough to breathe. Thoracentesis is a short, low-risk procedure done while you are awake.

Smoking Cessation – How to Quit Smoking

Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. Over 41,000 of these deaths are from breathing secondhand smoke. That’s about one in every five deaths, or 1,300 per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. Smoking often causes serious health issues, such as heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and other cancers. Smoking also increases your risk for blindness.

Other oral and inhaled tobacco products also cause health problems. These products include chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, cigars, and pipes. As with cigarettes, using these products often leads to cancer, heart disease, and other serious health conditions.

Some smokers try “vaping” to help them quit. Vaping is the use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco but instead heat up nicotine to produce a smoke-like vapor that is then inhaled. Vaping is not an FDA approved form of smoking cessation to quit smoking.