Asbestosis, as indicated by the name itself, is a disease that was caused by exposure to asbestos. The most commonly symptoms Similar to other asbestos induced illnesses, such as mesothelioma for instance, it might take many years or even decades before a patient encounters the first symptoms of asbestosis and receives his asbestosis diagnosis. Short breath and chest pain are the most commonly named signs of this disorder.

Typically, a Health Care Professional starts with a physical exam where he checks a patient's respiratory function by using a stethoscope. He looks for irregular sounds coming out of the lungs, such as high pitches, "whistling" or crackles. In a next step the patient is sent for an x-ray of the chest. During this step, sometimes other asbestos induced diseases get detected, too, for instance, pleural plaques.

However, this method is not conclusive enough to make a positive diagnosis of asbestosis. Especially if the patient is a smoker, x-rays can be deceiving at times and may lead to either a false positive or false negative asbestosis diagnosis. A much more reliable tool is a CT-Scan. Through this procedure, a doctor can determine what kind of asbestos induced disease a patient may suffer from: pleural asbestosis, mesothelioma, asbestosis disease or a form of lung cancer, just to name a few.

The CT scan is a so called radiographic diagnostic technique. It creates multiple images and assembles them to a two dimensional picture. The patient is being placed on a flat table that slides back and forth through a round whole. I had it done myself before I got diagnosed with kidney cancer. When my CT Scan came back it revealed a 6.2cm tumor in my left kidney.

In other words, the CT Scans provides a much more concrete picture of what asbestos induced disease a patient is dealing with. Yet, only a biopsy can definitely conclude what exact kind disease a patient may suffer from. People diagnosed with asbestosis disease will undergo series of pulmonary function tests. These tests are necessary to monitor and measure the lung capacity. A common method is when a patient is asked to breath through a tube which is connected to a recording device. He then has to exhale the air in his lungs as quickly as possible.

The computer device records each single step and analyzes the results immediately. The results indicate the amount of air that the lungs are capable of holding, how smooth the air is moving inside and out of the lungs and their function of absorbing the oxygen from the inhaled air. Patients diagnosed with a diagnosis of asbestosis clearly show signs of impaired lung functionality. As mentioned earlier, only a biopsy - or in the case that a patient has already and unfortunately passed away - an autopsy, can conclusively determine an asbestosis diagnosis. Via this surgical procedure tissue specimens are sampled and send to a lab for further examination.

Obviously, this is a much more invasive procedure, however, absolutely necessary to get clarity on what kind of asbestos induced disease a patient may suffer from.