Millions of people in the US suffer from different kinds of asthma and allergies. An essential first step to effective treatment is to find out the causes of your asthma and allergy. Asthma and allergy centers aid you to obtain better diagnosis and treatment for these health problems. They are considered better than private clinics and hospitals due to their wide availability and specialized treatments.
Read on to learn more about asthma and allergy tests that these centers offer.
Asthma Tests
Spirometry
It is the first and the most commonly conducted lung or, pulmonary function test (PFT). This test helps to measure how much and how rapidly you can move air out of your lungs. This lung function measurement test specifically takes into account the amount (volume) and the speed (flow) of air that can be inhaled or exhaled. It requires you to breathe into a mouthpiece connected to a recording device or spirometer. The information that the spirometer collects is printed out on a chart called a spirogram. Spirometry is an essential tool used to help assess asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Xolair
Xolair is a treatment meant only for patients with high Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels and suffering from moderate to severe asthma. Xolair for hypodermic use is an injection, similar to allergy shots; binding the lgE and inactivating it. It is typically used to treat children aged 12 and older as well as adults suffering from:
Moderate to Severe Continuous Asthma
Under this condition, patients fail to get relief from asthma symptoms even after inhaling corticosteroids. Besides, the patients have to go through a skin or blood test to check if they have short-term allergies to year-round allergens.
Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria (CIU)
H1 antihistamine treatment cannot control this type of Urticaria. Chronic Urticaria is hardly the consequence of an allergy. Rather, most of chronic hives’ cases have an unknown (idiopathic) cause.
Allergy Tests
Rush Immunotherapy
Rush or accelerated immunotherapy is done quite fast with the ultimate aim to increase your endurance to an allergen. Different routines for the allergy shots try to achieve a maintenance dose that is quicker than standard immunotherapy. A rush immunotherapy schedule may consist of shots given after every few hours, instead of after every few days or weeks. Moreover, the maintenance dose is reached in one to eight days. Asthma and allergy center is the right place to conduct rush immunotherapy, as emergency care is readily available there.
Sublingual Immunotherapy
Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) makes use of allergy drops placed under the tongue to treat the cause of your allergy. Specific allergens that you are allergic to are put under your tongue and these allergens interact with special immune cells. Repeated doses of these drops turn your immune system less prone to allergies. SLIT treats your immune abnormality, i.e. its hyper-responsiveness to allergens such as pollen, dust, insect sting, food, animal dander, mold, medications, and latex. These allergic reactions may occur in the nose, sinuses, lungs, skin or GI tract.
Conclusion
Now that you have learned about the different kinds of asthma and allergy treatments available, you should visit asthma and allergy centers if you suffer from any of these diseases. Physicians available at these widespread centers care better for their patients.
No comments:
Post a Comment