A simple device for detecting carbon monoxide in the blood may help doctors get an honest answer out of patients who smoke, United States researchers said on Monday.
The device, called a pulse cooximeter, is typically used to test for carbon monoxide levels in firefighters, but it can also detect carbon monoxide levels in people who smoke, offering a powerful tool for educating patients about the effects of smoking.
”We were trying to just solve a little problem,” said Dr Sridhar Reddy, a lung specialist in St Clair, Michigan, who presented the study at a scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago, along with his 16-year-old son Ashray.
”There is no good way to screen people for smoking,” said Reddy, who encouraged Ashray to take on the study as a school science project.
”You can ask them directly, do you smoke. But once they say they don’t smoke and they lie about it, they will never volunteer that information,” Reddy said in an interview. – Reuters