About the Department

      Respiratory Medicine

 

The Department of Respiratory Medicine (earlier named as Department of Clinical Research) was initiated by Prof. R. Viswanathan around 1956. Prof. Vishwanathan along with Dr. D.N. Shivpuri started work on the problems of bronchial asthma. This fundamental work has drawn the attention of physicians all over India and now there are dozens of centers, government as well as private, which are carrying out this work along the path and the direction shown by the Institute. Prof. R. Viswanathan was the first HoD of the Department followed by Prof. O. P. Jaggi and now Prof. S.N. Gaur.
 
The Department is involved in the patient care (Outdoor and Indoor), research on different aspects of respiratory diseases and teaching of the postgraduate students in the subject – Pulmonary Medicine (DM, MD and DTCD) of University of Delhi. The Department conducts routine lectures, clinical demonstrations along with seminars, clinical meetings and journal clubs, ICU meetings, mortality meetings etc. regularly.
 
Following are the major research areas which have been explored since the inception of the Department:-

1.
Tropical eosinophilia and the role of eosinophil cells. The problem of tropical eosinophilia has been studied from all aspects: clinical features; pulmonary function tests; open lung biopsies for establishing the etiology; detection of microfilaria in right heart blood at night after prednisolone administration therapy; differential diagnosis.
 
2.
Bronchopulmonary manifestations of intestinal ascariasis.
 
3.
Recalcitrant pulmonary eosinophiliosis.
 
4.
Detection of cystic fibrosis cases presenting with chest symptoms.
 
5.
Evaluation of hyposensitization in seasonal and perennial asthmatics.
 
6.
Viral studies in acute exacerbations of recurrent bronchitis in children.
 
7.
Prevalence of aerobic and anaerobic organisms in chronic bronchitis cases.
 
8.
Occurrence of mycotic infections in steroid dependent asthma cases.
 
9.
Elevated levels of serum IgE in malignant and other lung diseases.
 
10.
Aetiological significance of insect allergy in nasobronchial allergy.
 
11.
Failure of calcium homeostasis pumps in asthma and rhinitis.
 
12.
Prophylactic treatment of asthma with theophylline, disodium cromoglycate and choline.
 
13.
Effect of premedication on interdermal skin test response in patients with respiratory allergic disorders. Prior administration of bronchodilators, steroids and adrenaline had no effect on the response to skin allergy tests.
 
14.
Human seminal plasma allergy in India.
 
15.
Studies in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. Different aspects for this disease have been studied including co-existent aspergilloma, allergic Aspergillus sinusitis and familial occurrence.
 
16.
Occurrence and significance of fungi in respiratory tract in cases of perennial asthmatics.
 
17.
Role of Thermophilic actinomycetes in chest diseases. A field survey of different occupational workers and places like farmers, daily-workers, sugar-mill workers, cotton mill workers and chronic chest disease patients was done and clinical, radiological, physiological and immunological investigations were carried out on these patients. The atmospheric air was also analysed for the presence of thermoactinomycetes. First series of Farmers Lung Disease was published from India.
 
18.
Role of viruses in diffuse interstitial fibrosis.
 
19.
Prophylactic treatment of bronchial asthma with inhaled salbutamol in combination with choline or disodium cromoglycate.
 
20.
Small airways obstruction in rhinitis and assessment of factors responsible for development of asthma.
 
21.
Relationship between rates of recovery from histamine induced bronchoconstriction and cold-inducted fall in hand termperature in asthmatics before and after antiasthma treatment.  
 
22.
Placebo controlled trial of two doses of choline in treatment of asthma.
 
23.
Role of dietary allergens in bronchial asthma.
 
24.
Comparative study of computed tomography of thorax and bronchography in ABPA.
 
25.
Sensitization to Aspergillus antigens in chronic rhinitis.
 
26.
Clinical profile in Sarcoidosis.
 
27.
Studies on premenstrual asthma.
 
28.
Clinico-physiological study on the efficacy of high dose disodium cromoglycate inhaler and beclomethasonedipropionate inhaler in bronchial asthma.
 
29.
Role of ipratropium bromide in cases of acute exacerbation of COAD.
 
30.
Immunochemicai study on various pollen and fungal extracts – fractionation, clinical relevance and cross reactivity [in collaboration with the Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (CSIR), Delhi.
 
31.
A clinical and physiological survey of the prevalence of bronchial asthma and rhinitis in urban school children, industrial workers, slum and rural and general population of Delhi.
 
32.
Placebo controlled trial of antioxidants in treatment of chronic obstructive airway diseases (COAD): A clinicophysioligic study.
 
33.
Immunotherapy with honey bee venom in patients with Honey Bee Allergy.
 
34.
Study of vagal reflexes in cases of TPE, Sarcoidosis, DIF (in collaboration of DST Centre for Visceral Mechanism).
 
35.
Study on the role of omeprazole in asthmatics having associated symptoms of gastrooesophageal reflex diseases, etc.
 
36.
Pulmonary rehabilitation programme in patients of COPD, Asthma, ILD.
 
37.
Assessment of Nutritional status in patient of COPD and Asthma.
 
38.
Sensitization of rare fungi in patients of COPD and Asthma.