As most people can imagine, the detrimental effects of smoking to the body are plentiful. Although there can be visible signs of destruction, there are other consequences which are more difficult to detect. Fortunately, possible tests are being developed to determine whether smoking and other chemicals lead to the development of the lung disease emphysema, an incurable disease.
Emphysema is classified in the group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, serious lung diseases which are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. About 12 million Americans are diagnosed with COPD.
The leading cause of these diseases are smoking and second-hand smoke, followed by exposure to certain chemicals and other toxins. To help curb the onset of disease, scientists are now investigating a test involving CT scans which potentially could alert future victims of emphysema and other COPD diseases if they display early signs of these illnesses.
Dr. Eric Hoffman, director of the Iowa Comprehensive Imaging Center and a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa, and other such scientists are investigating blood flow patterns and how they possibly could indicate early signs of emphysema and other similar diseases. Although their tests are still a working progress, the scientists have concluded that patchy distributions of blood flow in the lungs could be indication of an onset of the disease.
Hoffman said these tests used CT scanning and imaging to determine if the subjects in the tests produced homogenous blood flow patterns or patchy blood flow distributions.
"[In the tests] we had a high X-ray CT scanner and had the person hold their breath," Hoffman said. "Then we would inject rapidly an agent that has iodine, which shows up on the scan, and we would follow how it passes through the lungs. From brightness changes through the lungs as it's passing through, we can calculate the blood flow through regions."
Hoffman later said this irregular blood flow occurs when the body shuts down certain blood flow patterns to aid ventilation to the lungs.
"If there is poor ventilation to the region, the lung is designed to shut down and flow blood to better ventilation," he said. "The normal response is to sense this poor ventilation and inflammation and maintain blood flow. However, a percentage of people aren't able to do that, and [thus they] develop emphysema."
Although these tests don't determine a treatment for emphysema, they do point to potential ways to fix the problem.
"If shutting down blood flow to inflamed region is the problem, then that identifies possible solutions" Hoffman said. "The solution then would be to dilate blood vessels and return blood flow to those regions."
In the future, smokers and non-smokers alike may have the opportunity to determine whether they are at risk for emphysema. If so, they then would have the chance to take better care of their bodies and help resolve those issues.
Hoffman also said many other ongoing studies are trying to determine the causes of emphysema and possible treatments. Leading studies are the Subpopulations and Intermediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study project and the $50 million COPD genes project.
SPIROMICS "supports the prospective collection and analysis of phenotypic, biomarker, genetic, genomic, and clinical data from subjects with COPD for the purpose of identifying subpopulations and intermediate outcome measures," according to its website.
Scientists are well on their way to finding a cure. But it may not even be needed if smokers and non-smokers alike are alerted of their chances for emphysema early on through these tests.
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