Pulmonary hypertension needs treatment

September 5, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: In a recent column, you addressed the condition of pulmonary hypertension and said to see a pulmonologist and get a chest X-ray to detect this. I did just that for my 9-year-old daughter, but the pulmonologist did not detect pulmonary hypertension from the results of the X-ray. He felt her breathing issue was due to allergies and treated her with allergy medication.

Thank goodness for her pediatrician. She felt something was still wrong and sent her for an echo. The technician immediately caught that she had something wrong with her and only told me that the results from the echo were sent to a pediatric cardiologist to be read. So the diagnosis came from a cardiologist, who is the one who treated the pulmonary hypertension.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Column, Leading Letter Tagged With: , ,

Plant worker suffers respiratory difficulties

May 26, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: Can you give me an idea or guess the problem that I have, as no one has yet diagnosed it? It’s a breathing problem that seems to be getting worse, but slowly.

My breathing is shallow, and I often count 20 or more intakes per minute. I quit smoking 24 years ago, and the problem was not there then. My wife often hears my breath from another room, and my camcorder microphone picks it up easily. I have grown used to it and often don’t realize the noise I make.

I have had a series of laboratory tests that all say there is nothing, but this condition can’t be right. My doctor says I definitely don’t have asthma, and he doubts that it’s pulmonary hypertension, though after reading about it, I do have some of the symptoms that are mentioned.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Daily Column, Leading Letter Tagged With: , , ,