A new study is showing hopes of being able to treat and control Asthma for up to 12 months.

Bronchial thermoplasty uses radio waves to burn away excess smooth muscle from the airways to make breathing easier as this muscle contracts and narrows the airways if left unchecked.

Patients must receive a mild anaesthetic for the procedure to be performed.

Authors writing an accompanying editorial say that the value of this research is that it has brought medical attention back to airway muscle and away from immunology and inflammation. Bronchial thermoplasty is not without risks and other methods could also be developed that are less invasive and have similar effects, they say. As examples they suggest drugs that paralyze the excess muscle or destroys it chemically.

Bronchial thermoplasty is undergoing a larger study in the hopes of receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administation (FDA).

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[tags]bronchial thermoplasty, asthma, anaesthetic, health, fda[/tags]