What Is Pulmonology?
It is a medical branch that specializes in dealing with diseases that occur in the respiratory tract. Pulmonology often involves providing medical support and managing patients who require life support and mechanical ventilation for their body to perform breathing cycles normally.
The doctors that deal with respiratory diseases are called pulmonologists. They are specially trained to diagnose diseases and conditions of the chest, asthma, particularly pneumonia, Occupational lung disease, tuberculosis, emphysema, and complicated chest infections. Read the Pulmonary Medicine Journal for in-depth knowledge.
Diagnosis of Respiratory Disease May Be Based On The Following:
●Hereditary diseases that affect the lungs. Example: cystic fibrosis, alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency
●Exposure to infectious agents such as certain types of birds, malt processing.
●Exposure to toxins that are released by tobacco smoke, exhaust fumes, asbestos, coal mining fumes.
●Autoimmune conditions that might predispose to certain diseases like pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension.
What Are The Clinical Findings?
Inspection:
The doctor looks for signs of cyanosis or clubbing. Additionally, they also look for any differences in the respiratory rate.
Palpation:
● Check if cervical lymph nodes are palpable or not
● Examining trachea and chest wall movement.
● Percussion of the lung fields to check for dullness or hyper-resonance.
Auscultation:
● The Auscultation process is carried out with the help of a stethoscope
● The lung fields are observed for any diminished or unusual breath sounds
● Rhonchi heard over lung fields with a stethoscope.
What Are The Significant Tests Associated?
● Bronchoscopy
● Sputum studies
● Arterial blood gases
What Are The Treatment Options For Respiratory Diseases?
● Oxygen therapy
● Bronchodilators
● Inhalers such as metered dose inhaler, or rotahaler. For children and elderly who are not aware of the usage of MDRs, they may use a spacer. The spacer helps in reducing the risk of the drug failed to reach the lungs.
● Pulmonary rehabilitation
What Is Nephrology?
Nephrology is the branch of medicine that specializes in kidneys and all the problems associated with them. It includes the study of normal kidney function and diseases related to the kidneys, the preservation of kidney health, as well as the treatment of kidney disease.
Further, the branch also takes care of diet and medication to renal replacement therapy (dialysis and kidney transplantation), Nephrologist deal with all the areas. Refer to the Nephrology journal for more.
Systemic conditions that affect the kidneys are autoimmune diseases and diabetes. On the other hand, systemic diseases occur due to some damage to the kidneys, and they are renal osteodystrophy and hypertension.
What Is The Diagnosis For Kidney Diseases?
Urinalysis. It is the examination of the urine. A urine sample of the patient is taken and sent to the lab for a test. The test may be suggested based on the appearance of blood in the urine (haematuria), pus cells in the urine (pyuria), protein in the urine (proteinuria), cancer cells in the urine. To quantify the daily protein loss (proteinuria), creatinine clearance, urine output, or electrolyte handling by the renal tubules, 24-hour urine collected is used.
The basic blood tests are helpful to check the concentration of hemoglobin, sodium, potassium, platelets, urea, calcium, creatinine, chloride, bicarbonate, magnesium or phosphate in the blood.
All the aforementioned chemical levels present in the body may be affected by problems that arise in the kidneys.
The serum creatinine concentration could be used to evaluate the function of the kidney. It is called the creatinine clearance or another name, estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR).
Some more specialized tests can be ordered to discover or link certain systemic diseases to kidney failures such as infections (hepatitis B, hepatitis C), paraproteinemias (amyloidosis, multiple myeloma), metabolic disorders (diabetes, cystinosis), and autoimmune conditions (systemic lupus erythematosus, ANCA vasculitis).
The structural abnormalities that may be present in the kidneys can be identified with imaging tests. The tests may include Medical ultrasonography/ultrasound, scintigraphy (nuclear medicine), angiography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed axial tomography (CT).
Other invasive procedures such as a renal biopsy can also be ordered depending on the condition.