Attacking Asthma with a New Test

CLEVELAND, OH ( American Health Newswire) -- Coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. 24 million Americans experience these symptoms when asthma attacks. The chronic respiratory disease is obvious in some, but other patients suffer a long time, while doctors struggle to figure out their problem. Now a new test is helping undiagnosed asthmatics breathe a lot easier.

If you're looking for Alfredo Solis check the garage "Jack of all trades...master of none," Alfredo Solis, asthma sufferer, told American Health.

Not much could slow him down. That is until he started feeling faint while working around the house.

"I'm wheezing, I'm coughing, at night you can hear gurgling in my chest," Alfredo said.

After a battery of tests everything came back negative.  Then he took a deep breath and exhaled into a nitric oxide test.

 Cleveland Clinic pulmonary doctor, Sumita Kharti says NO levels can go up as lung inflammation increases.

"It becomes sort of direct evidence that your airways inflamed," Sumita B. Khatri, M.D, M.S, co-director of the Asthma Center Respiratory Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, explained.

She says the NO test helps her diagnose tough asthma cases the spirometer can't detect.

"I use it in patients with severe asthma where I feel like, well, is it severe because they're not taking their medication," Dr.Khatri said.

The device gives results in 90 seconds. Below 50 parts per billion is the normal range, above 50, asthma's likely. 

"The number came back at 129," Alfredo said about his results.

He was finally diagnosed with asthma and his symptoms cleared up with an inhaler.

"I feel like a million bucks. I'm running around, I'm playing baseball, I'm doing my yard work," Alfredo said.

Doctor Khatri says the NO test is also a great tool to personalize medicine.  After asthma is diagnosed a patient can take the test again to check their NO levels.  Then doctors can adjust their medication as needed. Khatri told American Health some asthma patients have normal NO levels so the test doesn't work in all cases.

Virtual Autopsy: The Dead Speak!

LINKOPING, SWEDEN ( American Health Newswire) --  Giving a voice to the dead without a single slice, it's so cutting edge, the producers of CSI are using this 3D technology to get ideas for their show. 

Every body tells a story.

Secrets from beyond the grave told through a first of its kind tool, a 3D virtual autopsy table.  

First the body is scanned in just 3 seconds using a dual energy CT scanner then the corpse becomes a virtual body made up of six gigabytes of information

"We can look at images again. And do the virtual autopsies many, many times," Anders Persson, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor and  director at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, in Sweden, told American Health. The data then goes to the autopsy table. 

Layer by layer in microscopic detail. 

"We can change the opacity we can make the skin completely transparent. We can look for muscles, we can look for air," Dr.Persson said. 

It's what you can't see with a traditional autopsy that allows the dead to speak. 

"There was no suspicion of crime at all. But we scanned them and we saw fractures that you couldn't explain. It was murder," Dr. Persson said. 

The technology also offers a whole new way to understand diseases.  

"We can look for Alzheimer's in the brain, multiple sclerosis, it's really good for heart exams also," Dr. Persson said. 

Giving a voice to the dead and hope to the living. The virtual autopsy table is also being used to educate medical students about human anatomy without the need for cadavers. It's also helpful for surgical planning. Medical teams can decide on the best surgical strategy for an individual case before making the first cut.