Pulmonologist
The pulmonologist treats diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract.
If you have tracheitis, chronic bronchitis, a smoker's bronchitis, pleurisy or pneumonia, a pulmonary doctor will help you.
Who is a pulmonologist?
The respiratory system is the airways and lungs. Trachea is a large breathing tube, in children it is broad, elastic. Inflammation of the trachea - tracheitis is common in children. If the tracheitis is delayed, show the child to the children's pulmonologist.
The bronchial branches are entwined with a system of vessels and resemble a tree. Diseases of the bronchi are called bronchitis. Lungs look like small pouches similar to grape clusters (alveoli). Every day 15,000 liters of air pass through our lungs. Without oxygen, life is impossible, and it is the lungs that supply it to our body, and also remove carbon dioxide. The pulmonologist determines the nature of bronchial and pulmonary diseases and the tactics of their treatment.
In case of signs of difficulty breathing, immediately go to the doctor.
For example, bronchial asthma is allergic in nature. The list of allergens is very large. Asthma is treated by a pulmonologist together with an allergist.
The lungs were previously treated by therapists and surgeons, but in 1986 a separate medical specialty appeared in the USSR, as it became clear that pulmonology is a vast medical field. At the reception, the pulmonologist finds out your anamnesis, bad habits and working conditions, everyday conditions, directs you to the analysis of blood and ultrasound of the heart. Joint efforts of the doctor and the patient give excellent results. A good pulmonologist doctor strives to help people, he is attentive to the patients, adheres to the rules of medical ethics and constantly replenishes his knowledge, knows "perfectly" physiology, knows how to communicate with patients, disciplines them.
When should I go to a pulmonologist?
A pulmonologist can help people who suffer from a smoker's cough. Cough of the smoker most strongly manifests immediately after sleep. If you do not treat a smoker's cough, emphysema appears. It is accompanied by shortness of breath, a decrease in the volume of inhaled air. If you are worried about shortness of breath with a shortness of breath, it can be asthma. Breaking in the chest and wheezing also without attention should not remain - these are the first signs of obstructive bronchitis.
What tests should I take when I go to a pulmonologist?
An examination with a suspected pulmonary diagnosis may include a general blood test and a biochemical for blood protein fractions, a prothrombin index, bilirubin, sputum examination for tuberculosis, sputum cytology, blood electrolytes, antibiotic susceptibility testing, determination of blood immunoglobulins, PCR diagnostics, general urine analysis. In each case, the volume of the examination is determined by the pulmonologist.
What methods of diagnosis does the pulmonologist use?
Everything starts with the collection of anamnesis, listening to the lungs and radiography of the lungs. Sputum is examined, then an electrocardiogram, spirography can be prescribed, since chest pain and shortness of breath are often signs of heart disease. You can be referred to a cardiologist with such symptoms. A bronchoscopy may be prescribed. The procedure for collecting biological material is usually well tolerated, done under local anesthesia. Also you will be referred to ultrasound of the abdominal organs and thyroid gland. MRI is increasingly being used.
What does pulmonologist do?
If you have a cough, shortness of breath, attacks of suffocation or snoring, you need to go specifically to the pulmonologist. If the treatment prescribed by the therapist has had an effect, you no longer need to go to any doctor, but it often happens that the symptoms listed can be of concern to a person for months, usually after a cold, flu or spontaneously. The pulmonologist can reconsider the diagnosis set by the therapist and adjust the treatment.
If you have a small child, and he began to cough, go first to the pediatrician. He can refer you to a children's pulmonology center. There, a child is given an X-ray of the lungs. This is necessary in the case of a complicated course of lung diseases or, if the child has a congenital pathology of the bronchi or lungs. There, the question of possible hospitalization, if necessary, is also decided.
Advices of a pulmonologist
How to identify pneumonia?
Pulmonologist at the reception will conduct a survey. Maybe you need to do a lung X-ray and a blood test. Then you will be prescribed antibiotics. Usually, within 4 days it becomes easier, but they need to drink about 10 more days and do not throw in any way! Do not communicate with colds, sick with flu or chickenpox, so as not to suffer from other infections other than pneumonia.
How to deal with seasonal allergy?
- During the flowering period, keep the office windows and apartments closed while you are there. It is necessary to aerate - leave the room. It is best to ventilate after the rain.
- Do wet cleaning more often.
- Take a shower, wash your hair twice a day.
- Take a blossoming holiday at sea, in the mountains, in another climatic zone.
- Antihistamines should be prescribed only by a doctor.
The pulmonologist has all the necessary knowledge to help you in case you are long-standing cough or shortness of breath - ask for help in a timely manner and the treatment will not be long and costly.
Medical expert editor
Portnov Alexey Alexandrovich
Education: Kiev National Medical University. A.A. Bogomolets, Specialty - "General Medicine"
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