Images of lungs damaged by smoke

Researchers say that for the first time, they have been able to get an image of lungs apparently damaged by secondhand tobacco smoke.

It is not a pretty picture -- or, truth be told, it is pretty, in its own way. The lungs of people exposed to a lot of smoke are dotted with a daffodil yellow set against a rich background of red. The problem, the researchers say, is that the yellow indicates where there may be tiny holes and extended spaces that should not be there.
The scientists, who presented their findings to a recent conference of the Radiological Society of North America, do not make any broad claims. "The effects of secondhand cigarette smoke on respiratory health are still under debate," they wrote.

But they said the images confirmed for the first time that tobacco smoke can cause microscopic changes in the lung. The researchers, led by Chengbo Wang of the University of Virginia -- now at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia -- used an MRI to examine the lungs of 60 people, 45 of whom had never smoked. The researchers divided that group into those with low secondhand smoke exposure and those with high exposure. To allow the MRI to capture the images, the researchers asked the volunteers to inhale a helium-nitrogen mixture whose movement could be traced by the machine.

Opioids may not affect driving

Patients taking the powerful painkilling drugs known as opioids are often advised not to operate heavy machinery because of the sedating effects of the medication. But a new study finds that people who take opioids regularly for chronic pain drive as well as most others on the road. The researchers arrived at their findings after asking two groups of about 50 volunteers each to use a driving simulator for 12 minutes. The members of one group were regular users of oral morphine; the other group took no pain medication. The study, presented to a recent conference of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, used the driving simulator to measure weaving, reaction time and accident rates, and found little difference between the groups. The lead researcher, Asokumar Buvanendran of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, said regular users of opioids like morphine might have developed tolerance to its side effects. "If I suddenly took 30 milligrams of morphine," he said, "I'd probably sleep for 10 hours, whereas someone who took it for the last two years is probably as alert as I am now." Buvanendran said.

New York Times