Secondhand smoke lung damage detected

CHICAGO, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. radiologists have, for the first time, identified structural damage to the lungs caused by secondhand cigarette smoke.

The study was conducted at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"It's long been hypothesized that prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke may cause physical damage to the lungs but previous methods of analyzing lung changes were not sensitive enough to detect it," said Chengbo Wang, magnetic resonance physicist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Wang and colleagues used long-time-scale, global helium-3 diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to study the lungs of 43 volunteers, including seven current and former smokers and 36 people who had never smoked, 18 of whom had a high level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

In helium-3 diffusion MRI the patient inhales a specially prepared helium gas prior to imaging and the scanner is adjusted to collect images showing the helium gas in tissue.

"With this technique, we are able to assess lung structure on a microscopic level," Wang said. "These findings suggest that breathing secondhand smoke can injure your lungs."

The study was presented Monday in Chicago during the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.