Right now, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia are studying a new treatment that has proven to reduce the dangerous symptoms of pneumonia.
The Medical College of Georgia’s Vascular Biologist Dr. Rudolf Lucas and his team just got a $2.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to help save lives threatened by damaged lungs.
“We essentially tried to develop a new therapy for pulmonary edema, which is essentially accumulation of liquid in the lungs,” says Dr. Lucas. As an example, during severe pneumonia the lungs fill with liquid making it difficult or impossible for oxygen to flow from the lungs to the blood.
“In that case, we need substances to remove the liquid,” Dr. Lucas explains that our bodies have a way to clear liquid from the lungs on their own; however, when a person has pneumonia those channels do not work like they should.
