A variety of conditions can affect your chest and lungs: infections, asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema and lung disease caused by smoking or other toxins. Many heart conditions can affect your breathing and your lungs, too.
Whether you’re worried that a cold has turned into bronchitis, or you seek relief from a chronic condition like asthma, our pulmonary specialists can help.
Programs & Services available at:
Kapiolani 808 527 2588
If you have a child with a lung and breathing related condition, you can count on our experts to provide outstanding care.
Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children provides comprehensive pediatric respiratory care services for patients in Hawaii and the Pacific region.
Pediatric Pulmonary Test Lab
Pediatric patient in a machine called the body box. The body box is commonly used for spirometry testing.
Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are tests that show how well your lungs are working. The tests measure lung volume, capacity, rates of flow and gas exchange.
This information can help your healthcare provider diagnose and decide the treatment of certain lung disorders.
- More info from our Health Library: Pulmonary Function Tests
Children’s lung function testing and education support is available through the Pediatric Pulmonary Function Test Laboratory (PFT Lab) at Kapiolani. Our family-friendly facility provides a nurturing environment to encourage children to give their best effort, which results in more accurate diagnoses and treatment.
The Pediatric PFT Lab partners with providers in Hawaii to care for and monitor diseases such as:
- Asthma
- Cystic fibrosis
- Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy
- Spinal muscular atrophy
- Bronchiectasis
The PFT Lab can help patients who require oxygen to perform day-to-day activities, such as walking to the bathroom in their house or going shopping at the mall with friends.
Our dedicated team of pediatric technologists, pulmonologists and staff are specially trained to address the unique care required when testing a child’s lung function.
Children often follow directions for lung function testing differently than adults. Having someone who is able to understand the ways children communicate and react is important to get accurate test results.
Pediatric Function Test Lab Services
- Spirometry - Tests the maximum force of a patient’s breath after inhalation and exhalation.
- Plethysmography - Measures lung volume.
- Diffusion - Measures gas exchange from lungs to blood stream.
- Bronchodilator testing - Tests lung function and effectiveness of medication.
- Exercise testing – Tests of exercise capacity including six-minute walk and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to help evaluate lung function.
- High-altitude simulation testing - Determines if supplemental oxygen is needed when flying on an airplane.
- Tracheostomy manometry – Aids in tracheostomy management.
- Maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressure tests – Measures of lung muscle strength.
Our experts also provide education to patients and families to manage lung function. This includes information on how to perform manual chest physiotherapy.
Pulmonary function tests also assist physicians treating children with serious medical conditions. Doctors use PFT tests to monitor the effects of treatments and potential complications related to chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and congenital heart cases.
How to Schedule a Pulmonary Function Test
Pulmonary function tests are by referral only. If you are concerned about your child’s lung health, please speak with their pediatrician, primary care provider or pulmonologist. They will help determine if lung function testing is right for your child.
Straub Benioff 808 522 4321
Straub Lung Center
Straub pulmonary and thoracic physicians evaluate, diagnose and treat breathing disorders and lung disease.
From routine assessments of chronic cough and shortness of breath to evaluating patients for lung disease or specialized cancer treatment, Straub’s team offers a multispecialty personalized approach to care.
Straub’s lung specialists work closely with its thoracic surgeons to evaluate patients for lung disease. Other areas of expertise include lung cancer diagnosis, pulmonary vascular disease, pulmonary hypertension, interstitial lung disease, endoscopic therapy, lung infections and vasodilator therapy.
Pulmonary medicine physicians routinely consult with their colleagues in cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, infectious disease and rheumatology to ensure all aspects of a patient's problem are evaluated.
Straub Pulmonary Services also provides tests and diagnostics for our clinics and hospitals with blood gas analyses and services for athletes and patients with performance evaluations that test aerobic capacity.
Straub provides state-of-the-art clinical evaluation, diagnosis and treatment services to patients with health problems such as:
- Acidosis
- Acute and chronic pulmonary emboli
- Alkalosis
- Asthma
- Bronchitis
- Chronic pulmonary heart diseases (incl. pulmonary hypertension)
- Collapsed lung (Pneumothorax)
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
- Emphysema, including lung volume reduction surgery
- Empyema
- Evaluation of shortness of breath
- Fungal infections of the lung
- Granulomatous lung diseases
- Hepatopulmonary syndrome
- Interstitial lung disease
- Lung cancer
- Lung nodule
- Metastatic respiratory system cancer
- Pleural effusion
- Pneumonia
- Pneumonitis (Due to Solids or Liquids)
- Portopulmonary hypertension
- Pulmonary disease
- Pulmonary edema
- Pulmonary embolism
- Pulmonary fibrosis
- Pulmonary vascular diseases
- Respiratory failure
- Sarcoidosis
- Sleep apnea
- Tuberculosis
- Wegener's granulomatosis
Services include:
- Blood Gas Analysis
- Bronchial Thermoplasty (Severe Asthma Treatment)
- Diagnostic Testing
- General Pulmonary & Critical Care
- Bronchoscopy
- Thoracentesis
- Ventilation Management
- Bronchoprovocation Test
- Bronchoscopy – (MI diagnosis of lung cancer)
- Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing
- Central Line Insertion (for Chemotherapy)
For the best lung and pulmonary care, visit our fellowship-trained specialists and find high quality, individualized treatment whatever your condition or need
Straub Lung Center - Pulmonology and Thoracic Services: 1-808-522-4321
Wilcox 877 709 9355
Many types of lung problems require clinical care by a physician or other health care professional. On the island of Kauai, Wilcox provides expert care for a range of health issues affecting the lungs and chest.
Wilcox: 1-877-709-9355
Pali Momi 808 485 3085
The lung and chest doctors at Pali Momi evaluate, diagnose and treat breathing problems and lung diseases. They care for common issues like a long-lasting cough or shortness of breath to more serious conditions like lung diseases and cancer.
Using the latest medical advancements, our multispecialty team develops a personalized care plan for each patient. Our experienced pulmonologists (lung doctors) provide compassionate, patient-centered care. They routinely consult with their colleagues in thoracic surgery, cardiology, infectious disease and rheumatology to ensure all aspects of a patient's condition are evaluated.
Our physicians are American Board of Internal Medicine-certified in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine.
Conditions We Treat
- Acute and chronic pulmonary embolisms
- Asthma
- Bronchiectasis
- Central Airway Obstruction (CAO)
- Collapsed lung (Pneumothorax)
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
- Emphysema
- Granulomatous lung diseases
- Interstitial lung disease
- Lung cancer
- Lung nodules
- Metastatic respiratory system cancer
- Non-tuberculous mycobacteria
- Pleural effusions
- Pleural infections
- Pneumonitis
- Pulmonary fibrosis/Interstitial lung disease
- Pulmonary sarcoidosis
- Sleep apnea (OSA and CSA)
Our Services
- Bronchoscopy: A way to look inside the lungs and airways to find or treat problems.
- Bronchial Thermoplasty: A treatment for severe asthma that helps open the airways.
- Bronchoprovocation Testing: A test to see how sensitive lungs are, often used to check for asthma.
- Bronchoscopic Lung Volume Reduction (BLVR): A procedure to help people with severe lung disease breathe more easily.
- General Pulmonary: Care and treatment for lung and breathing conditions.
- Thoracentesis: Removing fluid from around the lungs to help with breathing.
- Pulmonary Function Testing: Tests that show how well lungs are working.
Contact Pali Momi Pulmonology Services: 808-485-3085
Lung Nodule Program at Pali Momi
This subspecialty program aims to provide timely, evidence-based and personalized care for patients with lung nodules. Our approach focuses on early detection and treatment of lung cancer.
Often, lung nodules are found by accident during an X-ray or CT scan for something else. Most of the time, these nodules are benign or noncancerous. Even if a nodule is not cancerous, early diagnosis and tracking of lung nodules is the most effective way to detect or rule out cancer.
The Lung Nodule Program brings together a multidisciplinary team of specialists that includes:
- Pulmonologists
- Thoracic surgeons
- Radiologists
- Oncologists
Our pulmonologists are trained to do advanced tests that help find and check for lung cancer in just one visit. If cancer is found, we work closely with other specialists to start treatment quickly. We also help with special procedures that treat or mark lung tumors during surgery.
Our goal is to provide robust evidence-based medical therapies to Central and West Oahu communities. Using our cutting-edge Ion robotic bronchoscopy platform, we are able to biopsy lung nodules found along the perimeter of the lung. These nodules were previously inaccessible without surgery.