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Doctors Heat Up Asthma
Reported October 12, 2009
ST. LOUIS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Fifteen-million Americans have asthma
-- narrowing and inflammation of the airways that can be uncomfortable, even
fatal in the most serious cases. This fall, the FDA is looking at a new
drug-free treatment for patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma … doctors
are using heat to open up patients' airways.
It was a routine Mike and Jenny McLeland couldn't get through the day
without.
"At least once a month was bad enough to go to the emergency room, but I'd
have asthma attacks two or three times a day," Mike told Ivanhoe. "I was
using my inhaler constantly."
"It doesn't matter how many asthma attacks I've had in my lifetime," Jenny
told Ivanhoe. "I still start to feel kind of panicky. What if I can't get to
my inhaler in time? What if I can't get help in time?"
The couple was among the first to test a new treatment called bronchial
thermoplasty, which uses heat to alleviate asthma. Doctors send a catheter
into the lungs. Wires deliver radiofrequency energy to the constricted
muscles around the windpipe.
"This is a permanent treatment where we actually alter the smooth muscle,"
Mario Castro, M.D., a pulmonologist at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., told Ivanhoe. "We decrease the muscle that's
surrounding the windpipe, so it's a much more long-lasting treatment and
more effective treatment for these patients."
In an international clinical trial, patients showed an average 32 percent
reduction in severe asthma symptoms. Jenny's cut her asthma meds by 50
percent … Mike doesn't need his at all.
"I'm not using my inhalers," Mike said. "I'm off my steroid inhaler. I
haven't used my Provental for the last three months."
Now, Mike and Jenny are enjoying something they never thought they could
have -- an active lifestyle that gets better with every stride.
Doctors sedate patients for the procedure, and it's done in sets of three
that take 45 minutes each. Doctors say the heat treatment is intended for
patients with severe asthma that's not helped by medication. The treatment
can temporarily worsen symptoms before they get better.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Judy Martin
Office of Public Affairs
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
(314) 286-0105 |
