A useful analogy is a fire alarm system in your ...

If you are a smoker, you already know how dangerous tobacco can be for your health. You also know how addictive cigarettes, and as hard to get rid of this habit BЂ ", especially if you are still healthy. But what if doctors can tell you with a simple test that your lungs are destroyed on the way to emphysema? Will it help you quit smoking then? That's what researchers Weill Cornell Medical College are hoping for. They report on new blood tests that could detect early signs of emphysema disease in which the tiny air sacs in the lung tissue collapse, leaving gaping holes that make breathing difficult and ultimately impossible. Smoking is a major cause of emphysema, but because of his progressive condition that many smokers may take years before shortness of breath. And emphysema occurs, it cant be the opposite: when the air sacs are destroyed, they are gone forever and can not be stepped up. Thus, selecting the first signs of disease may help smokers to quit, and therefore stop the destruction in its path. Dr. Ronald Crystal, head of the department of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell, decided to look at the blood-based features of emphysema after he realized that the only way to assessment of lung function was computed tomography, which exposes the patient to radiation, which can be expensive. It turns out that when endothelial cells that make up the air sacs in the lungs break down in the body, they produce clear signs of death, in the form of microparticles that are shed into the blood. Crystals team developed a test of endothelial microparticles (EMR) and decided to test whether they can be a good marker of lung function. Indeed, they are. 92 Then smokers and nonsmokers in the lab, he put them in two different tests of lung function. A more general test or spirometry, measured how much air the participants can send in one go to determine how well the lungs are functioning. Most doctors include the test for his annual physical in smokers. Then the researchers asked volunteers to take a more sophisticated test that only specialists are when they suspect any of the respiratory tract or lung disorder. This test gives a more detailed picture of lung function, including how and air bags that first experience at emphysema work. When Crystal compared results of two tests with the participants blood EMP, he found that 95% of smokers with normal spirometry results, but low air sac functions were increased number of EMP. This would be the guy outside the building who smokes cigarettes, feels good and goes to the doctor and told his lungs are normal, says Crystal. What he doesnBЂ ™ know that he can develop emphysema. Crystals Scientists have found that blood levels of EMP is well correlated with the lower air bag function, suggesting that blood may be useful early sign of disease. While emphysema can be reversed, it can be stopped, and there is evidence that when smokers are faced with signs of lung disease, they are more likely to quit smoking. A useful analogy is a fire alarm in your home, says Crystal. When she leaves, she doesnBЂ ™ t mean 100%, which is a fire, but better to check. This blood test for a potential fire smoke in the lungs. His call to the awakening that says look, we have real evidence here of the real damage occurs in the lungs and better quit. Before the test lasix 12.5mg can be used more widely, however, must be repeated and checked with different smoking and non-smoking population. One of the important issues of further tests will be considered, whether normal or other pathological processes may contribute to increased PUOS levels. It is known that, for example, high blood pressure and diabetes can push the level of these particles, but Crystal said that he also carried out tests which clearly show PUOS in his study, first of all spilled air bags. Tiny blood vessels in the lungs, which feed air bags galore enzyme, which was distributed in the crystal PUOS found in his study volunteers. To test checked, the results strengthen the evidence just how harmful tobacco can be refined architecture of the lungs. And even if the damage can be reversed, warning people early signs of emphysema may help alleviate some of the burden of future disease. If we had a test to tell you that you developed early emphysema, your lungs begin to collapse, as we hope will be useful to persuade people to stop smoking, says Crystal. .