MAYWOOD, IL – Allergy sufferers may notice an increase in symptoms due to warmer weather this year, said Rachna Shah, MD, who leads the Loyola Medicine Allergy Count.
While the official allergy count won't start for weeks, Dr. Shah recently ran a test after hearing from allergy patients. She found abnormally high pollen numbers for February with moderate pollen level from trees and low levels of mold. Dr. Shah says some trees actually began budding as early as December.
For more than 20 years, Loyola Medicine's Gottlieb Memorial Hospital has provided the Chicago area with updated allergy counts every weekday during allergy season. , Dr. Shah explains how the count is performed. Pollen samples are gathered every weekday morning during allergy season from the roof of . Pollen grains and mold spores are collected from a cubic meter air sample and counted under a microscope. The counts include daily numbers for mold, tree, grass and weed pollens.
Dr. Shah is available this week to discuss the abnormal pollen counts for February and how it may affect those in the Chicagoland area.
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About Loyola Medicine
Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago's western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center, , , as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from more than 1,500 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. Loyola is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the , the , a Level 1 , Illinois's largest , a certified comprehensive stroke center and a . Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s and . Established in 1961, Gottlieb is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park with the Judd A. Weinberg Emergency Department, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research Facility at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center. MacNeal is a 374-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced medical, surgical and psychiatric services, acute rehabilitation, an inpatient skilled nursing facility and a 68-bed behavioral health program and community clinics.
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Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 123,000 colleagues and nearly 27,000 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 26 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 88 hospitals, 135 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 136 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. Based in Livonia, Michigan, its annual operating revenue is $21.5 billion with $1.4 billion returned to its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs.
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