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Pulmonology Coding Alert

Ventilation Study Coding:

Highlight This Give-Away Lingo for Proper V/Q Test Coding

Published on Sun Aug 22, 2010

Distinguish perfusion scans by reading between the lines. Here's how. Coding perfusion and ventilation scans of the lungs can be intimidating if you don't do it with care. If you let the technical details confuse you, you'd be risking inconsistencies, which could result in improper coding. Overview: When a pulmonologist wants to know how well a patient is getting oxygen into their blood (and carbon dioxide out), she orders a V/Q test, which measures the ventilation/ perfusion ratio between the amount of fresh air brought into the alveoli in the lungs and the amount of blood flow past the alveoli in the lungs using scintigraphic imaging. In a perfusion study, the patient gets an intravenous injection of radioactive material into his bloodstream, and scintigraphy imaging will show if there are any parts of the lungs where the radioactive blood just cannot get to (due to some kind of plug in [...]
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