Among the tools we use to evaluate and diagnose lung disease are:
- Blood tests
- Bronchoscopy allows your doctor to look inside your airways using a thin tube with a camera on the end. The bronchoscope is introduced into your nose or mouth and guided through the airways, sending images to a computer screen to help your doctor diagnose lung disease, tumors, and infections.
- Chest X-ray
- Lung biopsy can be performed during a bronchoscopy. Your doctor can collect tiny samples of lung tissue that will be evaluated for cancer, infections, and other conditions.
- Lung CT scanning uses X-rays to look at lung structure and to examine the lungs for tumors that might be too small to be seen by X-ray.
- Pulmonary function tests measure amount of air your lungs can hold, how the lungs react in response to certain drugs, and how the lungs transfer gases (such as carbon monoxide) across their walls and into the blood stream.
- Polysomnography is a study commonly used for the diagnosis of sleep disorders.
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning uses small amounts of radioactive material to show areas where cancer is located and where it may have spread.
- Spirometry is a type of pulmonary function test that assesses narrowing of the airways. While breathing into a tube over several minutes, the amount of air you move into and out of your lungs—and the speed of the air’s movement—is measured.