During the physical exam, your doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to your lungs, check your heartrate, and measure your blood oxygen saturation using a pulse oximeter. Your doctor will begin his or her diagnosis by asking you about your use of e-cigarettes within the past three months and whether you vaped a product containing nicotine, THC, or both. There is no single test for EVALI it’s what is known as a “diagnosis of exclusion,” which means that a doctor will conduct tests to rule out other potential diseases and conditions.
“I screen all of my patients, any child over age 12, since can exacerbate underlying conditions like asthma,” says Yale Medicine pediatric pulmonologist Pnina Weiss, MD.ĭiagnosing EVALI can be challenging because the symptoms of this lung condition are similar to those of other respiratory illnesses, like pneumonia and even the seasonal flu virus. According to the CDC, 15% of EVALI patients were less than 18 years old.Īt Yale Medicine, most pediatricians have started asking middle- and high school-age patients about their exposure to vaping, in large part to identify patients who might be at higher risk for developing related problems. The outbreak of EVALI cases emerged against a backdrop of an ongoing vaping epidemic among youth. What’s more, researchers have also identified vitamin E acetate, a chemical added to some THC-containing vaping products, as the main-but possibly not the only-cause of the illness. By February 2020, the CDC had recorded over 2800 hospitalizations due to EVALI along with 68 deaths caused by the condition.įortunately, there has been a substantial drop in cases since they peaked in August and September of 2020. The condition came to be called “e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury,” or EVALI. They all shared one thing in common: They had used vaping products within the previous three months.
The patients complained of a host of respiratory symptoms including shortness of breath, cough, and chest pain. In the summer of 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to investigate a steep rise in hospitalizations linked to the use of vaping products.
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