Detecting Asthma -- Radiologists Develop Asthma Imaging Method

Radiologists developed a new method for viewing the lungs of asthma sufferers. The method uses a polarized helium-3 gas--making it visible during an MRI. The patient inhales the helium-3 and undergoes an MRI, where doctors can see how far the atoms in the gas can travel in the lungs. This gives an image of what airways are blocked and what parts of the lungs ventilate. The black areas of the image indicate portions of the lung where air does not reach--areas where the helium-3 atoms could not travel.

Science daily

Here comes a new technique to diagnose Asthma, a disease which affects more than 22 million in US and of them 3 million are children and affects 300 million worldwide.

Asthma, as most of us know is a chronic disease which impairs breathing by inflaming and narrowing of the airways in the lungs, sometimes causing acute breathing problems in patients with severe condition.

In many cases the conditions of asthma happen at irregular intervals and over a longer period of time, the reasons of asthma are still being researched but mostly it is suspected due to the inherent tendency to develop allergies commonly know as atopy beside other reasons.

Read more about Asthma information at U.S Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health website

More Reading:

1. I have asthma. Do I need to know anything special before I get pregnant?


2.A link to a Senior Researcher working with Children in this field.