Reported October 2010

ASTHMA OR ALLERGIES? ST. LOUIS, MO (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- 34 million Americans suffer from asthma. Many are able to manage their symptoms with steroids and other medications, but for some, asthma attacks are so severe those inhalers and other drugs aren’t enough. Now, doctors are offering those patients a new alternative by heating up their airways to provide relief.. 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.

If you would like more information, please contact:

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

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