Bronchial Asthma is a more specific term used to describe what is traditionally known as simply asthma, which is a chronic inflammatory disease that effects the airways by causing coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath “attacks“. More than twenty-two million Americans are suffering from various intensities of Bronchial Asthma. While not all cases of asthma have an element relating to allergies, a large number of them do. There is a strong genetic component for Asthma as well, so having a family history of Asthma is typically a reliable indication of a future with Asthma as well.

Because of the symptoms that are commonly associated with asthma, the disease is regularly associated with mast cells, T lymphocytes and Eosinophils. Mast cells are the cells that create allergies by releasing histamines and other chemicals. Histamine is a substance that is responsible for nasal stuffiness and dripping when you have a cold or are suffering from hay fever, as well as the constriction of airways that is common during an asthma attack, and the itchy areas when reacting to a skin allergy. Eosinophils are white blood cells that are associated with allergic diseases, and T lymphocytes are white blood cells, but these are associated instead with inflammation and allergies.

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WHAT IS LASER EYE SURGERY?

Refractive or Laser Eye Surgery (LES) is a laser reshaping of cornea thus changing its focusing power (1), (pictures 1,2). For patients with moderate refractive errors this ambulatory procedure is a quick way to get free of glasses or contact lenses.

Picture 1. Eye doctor performing laser eye surgery
(source: whmc.af.mil)

COST OF LASER EYE SURGERY 

The cost of LES can vary widely but it is rarely under $1,000 per eye (2).

REFRACTIVE ERRORS TO CORRECT WITH LES

The light from an observed object penetrates through the cornea, lens and viscose liquid of the eye globe, refracts, and focuses on retina as an image. In farsightedness - hyperopia the eye globe is too short, and since the lens cannot refract the light from near objects enough, the light will fall behind retina and give a blurred image. In presbyopia (farsightedness of the aged) the lens becomes rigid and cannot refract the light from near objects efficiently, so it will  again focus behind the retina. In nearsightedness (myopia), the eye globe is too long and light from distant objects will focus in front of the retina, so images of distant objects will be blurred. In astigmatism blurred vision is caused by irregularities in the corneal or lens shape (3). All mentioned refractive errors can be corrected with laser eye surgery.

continue reading Corrective Laser Eye Surgery