A TEAM of Glasgow scientists has found a way to treat asthma - by heating the lungs.

Doctors from Glasgow University have tested the new technique, bronchial thermoplasty, on 112 patients.

They found burning off tissue that would otherwise make an asthma attack worse, offered significant improvements.

Patients in four countries were studied for a year and those who were treated had 10 fewer asthma attacks.

And they had less need to use emergency medication designed to open up passages in the lungs which close during an attack preventing oxygen reaching the blood.

Neil Thomson, Professor of respiratory medicine medicine, led the research based at Gartnavel General hospital in Glasgow's West End.

He said: "These findings are very encouraging.

"The results make us hopeful that bronchial thermoplasty may be a new option for patients with severe asthma."

There are 390,000 people with asthma in Scotland and, while death rates vary, the disease claims the lives of about 150 women and 125 men each year.

The Glasgow-based study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, also found major improvements in patients' quality of life.

On average, patients using the heated air spent an extra 86 days per year free of symptoms.

Asthma is one of the world's most common diseases with an estimated 5.2million people in the UK receiving treatment.

Treatment usually involves the use of inhalers, including steroids, which relax the tiny airways in the lungs that shut down during an asthma attack.