Bronchial thermoplasty for treatment of asthma  Monday 14 April
2008 8:32AM (view full episode)  Asthma is mainly treated with
medications, but a non-drug treatment is being researched in
Canada which involves heating up the airways one by one.   We'll
stay above the diaphragm with another condition affecting maybe
up to one in five Australians - asthma. The mainstays of asthma
treatment are medications. But a non-drug treatment being
researched in Canada may help some asthma sufferers. It's called
bronchial thermoplasty and involves heating up the airways one
by one.  Professor Gerard Cox is Head of Respiratory Medicine at
McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario.  Gerard Cox: Radio
frequency energy is delivered through a specially designed
catheter via the bronchoscope to the airway wall. It's got four
electrodes so we can expand. The heat that we generate is only
like a cup of coffee, so if you make yourself a cup of coffee
put in your milk or cream and then stick your finger in it,
that's our target temper