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Discover How FeNO Testing Can Help Assess How Effective Your Asthma Medications Are

Discover How FeNO Testing Can Help Assess How Effective Your Asthma Medications Are

No matter what stage you are in with your life with asthma, whether you are just beginning to think you may have asthma or you already know that you do and are not sure how your medications are working, FeNO testing could provide the answers you’re looking for. Read on to learn more about what it is, what it does, and how it can help. Then contact Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Medical Group at 805-658-9500 to set up an appointment for FeNO testing.

The basics of FeNO testing

FeNO testing stands for Fractional exhaled Nitric Oxide testing. All it takes from you is a few breaths into a mouthpiece that is attached to a computer. Said computer then measures how much nitric oxide there is on your breath. Why is this important? Because nitric oxide is produced by the lungs when they are inflamed. As a result, measuring nitric oxide is a quick and reliable way of determining if your lungs are inflamed.

Most people who have asthma have some types of inflammation in their airways. In most cases, it is chronic inflammation and will be present all the time. As a result, a high FeNO reading is very likely to indicate that a person has asthma.

FeNO testing can also tell us how well your medications are working

When we work with a patient who newly discovers that they have asthma, we will begin them on a treatment plan. In an ideal world, there would be a single treatment plan that would work for everyone who has asthma. This is not the reality of the situation. Instead, there are many different types of medications, some of which work with other medications.

This means that finding the perfect asthma treatment plan for an individual is not always possible the first time around. We will provide our best advice and start out a type of treatment. We then make adjustments once we know how the treatment is working.

Of course, to make adjustments we must first know how well the medications you are taking are working. An easy way to do this is to use FeNO testing before you start the new medication. As time goes on, we will continue to do FeNO testing. If there is no change in how inflamed your lungs are, then we will know we have not yet found the right treatment plan for you.

FeNO testing can reduce asthma exacerbations by as much as 50%

The manufacturers of FeNO testing equipment have tested their product extensively and have found that is successful in guiding corticosteroid therapy. Their studies have shown that it can lower asthma exacerbations by as much as 50%. If you are ready to learn more about this and other asthma testing equipment and processes then contact Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Medical Group at 805-658-9500.