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Human trial begins for nondrug asthma treatment

Respiratory Care Weekly, April 19, 2006

The first patient successfully completed a clinical trial for a new treatment that reduces the smooth muscle in the airways, which constricts during an asthma attack, reported genengnews.com. Dubbed The Asthma Intervention Research 2 treatment, the procedure involves removing smooth muscle in the airway walls through a standard flexible bronchoscope catheter. It's an outpatient treatment done under light anesthesia.

"The smooth muscle in your airway serves no known positive purpose, but in asthma patients it can constrict, tighten, and narrow the airway considerably," Michael Simoff, MD, an interventional pulmonologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a principal investigator of the trial, told genengnews.com. "We are hopeful that reducing this muscle will reduce asthma symptoms and improve quality of life for asthma sufferers."

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