Dr Subhajit Sen

Pulmonology is the specialty dedicated to the lung and the full breadth of diseases that affect breathing, gas exchange, and respiratory function. In West Bengal, the respiratory disease burden carries dimensions specific to this region: air quality challenges in the urban and industrial belt, a tuberculosis burden that remains clinically significant and that can produce long-term sequelae including destroyed lung and chronic obstructive changes, monsoon-driven infectious respiratory illness, and the allergy and asthma pattern shaped by West Bengal's humid subtropical climate. Dr. Subhajit Sen, MBBS, MD, brings 12 years of dedicated respiratory medicine practice to the management of this full spectrum of pulmonary conditions in West Bengal. His clinical scope encompasses the diagnosis and management of asthma across severity levels, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the smoking cessation support that is central to slowing its progression, interstitial lung diseases including hypersensitivity pneumonitis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, pleural disease including effusion evaluation and management, and sleep-disordered breathing including obstructive sleep apnoea where his expertise in sleep medicine allows for accurate diagnosis and appropriate CPAP and BIPAP initiation. Pulmonary function testing - spirometry with bronchodilator reversibility, diffusion capacity measurement, and body plethysmography - provides the objective lung function assessment that grounds clinical management decisions in measurable physiology rather than symptom history alone. Interventional pulmonology including bronchoscopy allows him to evaluate airway pathology, obtain tissue for diagnosis, and manage central airway conditions directly.

The critically ill patient with respiratory failure is among the most demanding presentations in hospital medicine, and the specialist respiratory input of a consultant pulmonologist is central to the management of patients whose lungs are the primary failing organ. Acute respiratory failure from pneumonia, acute exacerbation of COPD, acute severe asthma, pulmonary embolism, and acute respiratory distress syndrome each present differently, evolve at different rates, and require a different clinical approach - and the pulmonologist's depth of respiratory physiology knowledge is essential for making the decisions that determine outcomes. Dr. Subhajit Sen provides specialist respiratory assessment and management for patients with high-acuity respiratory disease in West Bengal, contributing the specific pulmonological expertise that complex respiratory emergencies require. His management of acute respiratory presentations includes the clinical characterisation of respiratory failure, the assessment of ventilatory requirements and the indication for non-invasive ventilation including BIPAP, the evaluation of acute exacerbations of chronic respiratory conditions, and the decision-making around bronchoscopic intervention in the acute setting where direct airway assessment changes the management plan. The respiratory sequelae of West Bengal's significant tuberculosis burden, including post-tuberculosis lung disease, bronchiectasis, and destroyed lung, represent a distinct category of complex respiratory disease that requires specialist pulmonological evaluation separate from general internal medicine management. His interventional pulmonology capability, including bronchoscopy, extends directly into the critical care context where airway assessment, secretion management, and tissue diagnosis in acutely unwell patients are part of the respiratory specialist's role.

Allergy and asthma, evaluated and managed within a respiratory medicine framework, represent a dimension of pulmonological practice that is distinct from general practice or paediatric allergy management. The adult patient with asthma who presents to a respiratory specialist typically has a more complex clinical picture: co-existing COPD requiring differentiation from asthma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis as a diagnostic consideration in the appropriate clinical context, occupational asthma from workplace sensitisation, and the overlap syndrome where asthma and COPD coexist in the same patient. Dr. Subhajit Sen evaluates and manages allergy and asthma within his respiratory medicine practice in West Bengal, with objective lung function assessment at the centre of the diagnostic process. Asthma diagnosis is confirmed through spirometry with bronchodilator reversibility testing rather than on clinical impression alone, establishing the objective evidence of reversible airway obstruction that differentiates asthma from other obstructive conditions. The allergen assessment in the respiratory medicine context focuses on the airborne sensitisations most relevant to West Bengal's climate: house dust mite, which thrives in the humid subtropical conditions, cockroach allergen prevalent in urban Bengal, and moulds including Alternaria and Aspergillus whose spore counts rise significantly during and after the monsoon season. Inhaler therapy is reviewed and optimised at every asthma consultation, with device selection and technique instruction ensuring that the medication prescribed actually reaches the airways. For patients with confirmed allergen sensitisation and inadequately controlled allergic rhinitis contributing to their asthma, sublingual immunotherapy is offered as a disease-modifying option that addresses the underlying immunological mechanism rather than suppressing its consequences.