Two specialty clinics are currently offered by the Cape Breton Pulmonary Unit. In addition to our regular services we operate a Dyspnea Diagnosis Clinic . This clinic is dedicated to specific diagnosis of asthma in patients of all ages. Effective self-management of asthma is the focus of the Asthma Education Clinic . This clinic serves as a natural extension of our dyspnea clinic.
Education is provided to both adult and pediatric asthmatic patients.
The clinic serves both lifelong and newly diagnosed asthmatics. In recent years we have switched from a histamine challenge to a methacholine challenge using a tidal breathing method. It not only provides a positive or negative diagnosis, but also indicates whether airway reactivity is mild, moderate or severe. Most patients find this new procedure easier than the previous histamine challenge method. Side effects have been associated with the use of histamine.