'Day in The Park' offers free pulmonary testing
Lynchburg News and Advance
Thursday, September 9, 2004It's a mistake to believe shortness of breath is just another sign of getting old. "That's not necessarily so," said Kathy Kennedy, family nurse practitioner. "It can mean pulmonary problems."
On Saturday at Kaleidoscope's Day in The Park, free pulmonary function tests will be available for people who want to know if they're breathing as well as they should be.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis - is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, said Kennedy, a member of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners, Central Virginia Region, helping to make the tests available.
Three other free tests - blood pressure, blood sugar, and total cholesterol - will be available at Booth 57 near the basketball court in Miller Park. The screenings are possible through a first-time cooperative effort venture between the nurse practitioners' council and the Free Clinic of Central Virginia.
Three respiratory therapists will run the airflow machines for the pulmonary function tests, underwritten by GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals.
The pulmonary function should provide insight to tobacco smokers - especially if they've been smoking 10 to 15 years. That includes young adults who may have smoked in their early teens and have continued the habit into their 20s and 30s.
In a deep breath, the normal lung can take in and expel about 4 quarts of air. However, age, gender, and height can affect that volume, said Cindy Zerfoss, acute care nurse practitioner.
Smoking tobacco can lead to changes in lung function.
The goal of the testing is to identify people who may have air-flow obstruction, said Zerfoss, and if they do, nurse practitioners will suggest they go to a physician for evaluation to find out if they have undiagnosed lung disease.
The screening tests can't diagnose a problem, such as emphysema, explained Zerfoss, "but if they're abnormal, and the patient's been complaining of shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing, we would encourage them to follow up with their primary care provider."
Another problem for many adults is asthma - some 26 million adults have asthma, and more adults than children are diagnosed each year.
For any of the tests available at Booth 57, information brochures will be on hand as well as question-answering nurses, and Free Clinic professionals who are volunteers. Finger stick tests are used for blood sugar and cholesterol measurements.
People will get a record of test results. Pulmonary function tests are often presented in graph form - the person's measurements compared to a predicted curve.
Kennedy has worked with the Free Clinic in the past at health fairs in Central Virginia. The finger stick screening tests do find some people with a serious but undiagnosed problem, such as diabetes.
And so do the blood pressure tests.
Abigail Haney, of the Free Clinic board, is pleased her husband, Chuck, agreed to be tested during a lull at an Appomattox health fair at which she was a volunteer. The test revealed that his blood pressure was critically high. As a result of following up on that screening information, "He's alive and well, and on medication that works," said Haney.
Return to Newspaper Articles