Marion General Hospital has many services, but one a lot of people may not know about is the pulmonary function screening.
The test measures the air flow going in and leaving the body. The screening only takes a few minutes, but it offers a wealth of information.
Larry Herrin, director of respiratory care, on Wednesday discussed how the screening works. It takes in factors such as sex, age, height, weight, smoker or non-smoker.
Results from the screening will show if breathing is obstructed, restricted or a combination of both. From those results it will help show areas of concern from various lung diseases, if any. If a treatment is necessary then a post screening will be done to see if the airways have been opened up more for easier breathing.
“You would do this screening if you have an underlying lung disease or if you are trying to find out if something is going on with your lungs,” Herrin said.
Screenings are often used for issues such as chronic lung conditions like asthma or emphysema, asbestosis, restrictive airway problems, sarcoidosis and others. It is also used for allergies and respiratory infections.
It measures one’s breathing volume by the volume of air that is exhaled in one second or, as Herrin said, how fast you can push the air out. There is also a maximum volume test as well, which is how much air you can forcefully exhale.
This screening is ordered by a doctor, and the results will be sent to the physician.
Herrin said sometimes the test can show the air is leaking from somewhere, which is causing irregularities in the air flow.
He once had a patient who had a hole in his ear drum and air was leaking from that hole. Herrin said the screening was done more than once to figure out why the patient was losing air volume, and in the end it was the hole in the ear drum and it leaked enough volume to affect the test.
Herrin said he felt like the program at the hospital is underutilized because a lot people do not know it exists. He said in this area there are a lot of patients with cancer, emphysema, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congested heart failure.
“To treat a patient effectively, you need to know all the parts of the puzzle. In order to know all of the parts of the puzzle, you have to do the leg work. This screening does the leg work for lung functioning,” he said.
By being at Marion General Hospital, Herrin said it offers patients a close-to-home alternative for their lung functioning screening. The respiratory department has flexible scheduling to suit the needs of patients.
