Asthma affects approximately 8 percent of all adults. The main goals of asthma management are to minimize symptoms and to prevent acute exacerbations through patient education, avoidance of exposures and pharmacotherapy. The use of medications, including inhalers, leukotriene receptor antagonists, oral glucocorticoids and newer biologic agents, are based on severity of symptoms and are escalated in a stepwise fashion.
Lung transplant physician-researchers on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health, attended the 2024 American Transplant Congress (ATC) in Philadelphia, PA. ATC is the most prominent annual forum for the entire international transplant community to present new findings and engage with colleagues on the latest trends in the field. ATC is the joint meeting of the AST and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS).
Bronchiectasis is the abnormal dilation of the airways in the lung. Normal, healthy lungs produce a small amount of mucus every day that gets moved into the mouth and swallowed into the stomach. However, when airways in the lung dilate, the lungs are unable to clear mucus effectively. This causes mucus to build up and leads to bacterial growth in the mucus. These bacteria cause inflammation, which leads to more mucus build up and more airway dilation. Bronchiectasis results in a pulmonary disease that is characterized by a productive cough, shortness of breath and periodic exacerbations.
Michael Duncan, MD, is chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, part of Baylor Scott & White Health. His expertise includes lung transplantation, pulmonary hypertension and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Dr. Duncan also has experience in cardiovascular critical care.
Caring for patients with advanced lung disease requires significant infrastructure and special physician expertise. To assist general pulmonologists in smaller Texas communities, Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health, has established outreach clinics in Abilene, Amarillo, Lubbock and Tyler.
