Bronchial washing is part of a procedure called a bronchoscopy, in which a physician looks into the lungs with a fiber-optic bronchoscope to check for irregularities and take tissue samples. The physician injects saline through the bronchoscope...
Asthma is a chronic disease of the lungs that inflames the airways, or bronchial tubes, of the lungs. The disease is believed to inflict as many as 300 million people worldwide. There is no cure for asthma, and it is usually treated with...
When a lung deflates (collapses), sometimes it will stay in that state, leading to a condition known as atelectasis. As the Merck Manual of Diseases notes, atelectasis can cause shortness of breath. The severity of the trouble breathing depends on...
Diagnosing disease is mostly a process of knowing what is "normal" and recognizing what is not. A doctor recognizes a disease by seeing a pattern formed by symptoms and findings during a physical examination. Laboratory tests can confirm these...
Lung cancer is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths throughout the world. This alarming statistic is due to the fact that the diagnosis is often made in the advanced stages. Such is the insidious nature of the disease. There are...
A piece of tissue called the epiglottis normally prevents food from entering your lungs by covering your trachea, or windpipe, as you're swallowing. From time to time, you may accidentally take food into your trachea while you're eating. If you're...
Lung cancer, according to the National Institutes of Health, NIH is the deadliest type of cancer in the U.S. It kills more people than breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer combined each year in the U.S. There are two main types of lung...
Mucus plug, the excessive secretion of slippery substance produced by the cells lining the airways of the lungs, is a result of various respiratory conditions that exhibit mucus hypersecretion. These include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary...
