Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Advantage Of Using The Latest Devices In The Diagnosis of Mesothelioma

By Heidi Wingrain

Mesothelioma diagnosis is an error prone field if the physician conducting it lacks enough experience in it. There are three factors that impair correct and speedy diagnosis mesothelioma. The cancer is comparatively rare and as such, the number of doctors and cancer centers who have enough expertise is much less. Secondly, the most common symptoms, shortness or breath and unrelenting cough are symptomatic of lesser diseases like influenza and pneumonias. Finally, the symptoms shown by all three forms of this cancer carry more or less similar symptoms and any misdiagnosis here may result in wrong treatment being imparted. The situation is compounded manifold due to the behavior of the cancer to show up only when the situation is unredeemable.

Most often it happens that the patient goes to the doctor for some check ups related to other diseases and the cancer is detected. If they are doubtful, physicians may start diagnosis mesothelioma by thoroughly examining the patient's work and health history. The work history itself can testify the disease in many cases and a thorough diagnosis confirms the doubt.

As a primary step in mesothelioma detection, imaging tests like MRI and CT scan and X-ray of the chest and abdomen are conducted. But these tests cannot confirm cancerous growths without doubt. Additional lung tests are conducted in many cases.

Thoracoscopy is a typical test employed by the doctors with the help of an instrument called thoracoscope. With the help of the instrument doctors look into the chest cavity through a cut made between two ribs, giving a local anesthetic to the patient. Another method used by the doctors is called petneoscopy, with the involvement of a tool named peritoneoscope. This is done to check the abdomen for any cancerous growth. Biopsy is a reliable modern test which is used to confirm cancer. Here microscopic analysis of a small piece of removed suspicious tissue is done to see whether any malicious cells exist.

The dismal situation of a late detection can be avoided if the persons who have come into contact with asbestos go for regular check ups. In such cases, if a doubt comes up, the doctors will immediately conduct diagnosis mesothelioma thus curing or prolonging the life of the victim considerably.

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