Trying
To Determine Why Someone Is Short Of Breath
Is
It The Heart Or Is It The Lungs??
One of
the more difficult tasks a physician faces is attempting to
separate out the relative contribution of pulmonary disease
and cardiac disease from a patient's complaint. The physiological
stress of exercise represents a simple, efficient means of
eliciting underlying abnormalities that may exist within the
cardiopulmonary system. Latent or overt abnormalities of the
heart and lungs can be determined by the increased metabolic
requirements of muscular work. The choice of cardiopulmonary
exercise testing and the parameters to be measured vary with
the nature and expression of the complaint being assessed.
The CardioPulmonary Exercise Physiology laboratory is located
at The McGuire Veterans Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia.
Comprehensive exercise protocols and monitoring equipment
in the laboratory enhance the physician's assessment of the
integration of pulmonary and cardiac physiology in response
to a graded-exercise stress. In the protocols, traditional
12-lead EKG stress testing is coupled with breath-by-breath
measurements of gas exchange and respiratory response. The
integration of these measurements provides a highly enriched
database of measured and calculated physiologic parameters
that clinicians can use to help clarify the etiology of a
patient's complaint.
Indications
for comprehensive CardioPulmonary testing include:
- Evaluation
of dyspnea
- Functional
status determination in congestive heart failure
- Pre-operative
risk assessment
- Disability
determination
- Response
to therapeutic interventions
- Development
of exercise prescriptions
For qualified
Veteran patients, physicians or patients may call the McGuire
Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Offices for
consultation and scheduling at: (804) 675-5605.
Scheduling
of non-Veteran patients is accomplished through the MCV
Hospitals Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine:
(804) 828-9071.
Request
info by email
Appointment
letters, driving directions and instructions will be mailed
to the patient's home prior to testing.
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