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A bronchial challenge test is a medical test used to assist in the diagnosis of asthma. [1] The patient breathes in nebulized methacholine or histamine. Thus the test may also be called a methacholine challenge test or histamine challenge test respectively. Both drugs provoke bronchoconstriction, or narrowing of the airways.
Pulmonary function testing is a safe procedure; however, there is cause for concern regarding untoward reactions and the value of the test data should be weighed against potential hazards. Some complications include dizziness, shortness of breath, coughing, pneumothorax, and inducing an asthma attack.
Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), also known as bronchoalveolar washing, is a diagnostic method of the lower respiratory system in which a bronchoscope is passed through the mouth or nose into an appropriate airway in the lungs, with a measured amount of fluid introduced and then collected for examination.
Furthermore, drugs used to treat asthma (such as inhaled glucocorticoids or leukotriene receptor antagonists) also reduce eNO levels. Clinical trials have looked at whether tailoring asthma therapy based on eNO values is better than conventional care, in which therapy is gauged by symptoms and the results of lung function tests.
In order to listen to the lungs from the back the patient is asked to move their arms forward to prevent the scapulae (shoulder blades) from obstructing the upper lung fields. These fields are intended to correlate with the lung lobes and are thus tested on the anterior (front) and posterior (back) chest walls.
A spirometer is the main piece of equipment used for basic Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs). Lung diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema may be ruled out from the tests. In addition, a spirometer often is used for finding the cause of shortness of breath, assessing the effect of contaminants on lung function, the effect of medication ...
Bear in mind, however, that this number does not apply to children, and that it can differ depending on the patient's native result; small patient's with pulmonary fibrosis, restrictive lung disease etc. will have a measurably lower FEV1 than healthy average-sized adults. This can give a false positive result of the test.
Bronchial hyperresponsiveness is a hallmark of asthma but also occurs frequently in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). [2] In the Lung Health Study, bronchial hyperresponsiveness was present in approximately two-thirds of patients with non-severe COPD, and this predicted lung function decline independently of other ...