Reasons For Coughing Up Blood
Can hemoptysis only be from the lung? Yes, when the blood comes from other sites it receives other names. Nosebleeds are called epistaxis and sometimes accompanied by coughing up blood if it is going backward and expelled from the mouth. Other times a cough with blood can come from the digestive system, in which case it is called hematemesis, the blood has another color, more blackish (it is called coffee grounds), can accompany food remains, usually triggers nausea or vomiting and there is usually a history of the digestive disease. See also: Coughing Up Blood with Mucus.
What does it mean to cough up blood? Reasons for coughing up blood in phlegm - It is a non specific symptom and may appear in multiple respiratory and non-respiratory diseases, But in more than 90% of the cases, its origin is of the lung. Its intensity varies from a blood-stained sputum or phlegm to the coughing up of a large amount of pure blood (Frank Hemoptysis). It should always be taken as a symptom of alarm, either because it is the first symptom of a disease that can become serious, for example, lung cancer, or because it can endanger the patient's life (large amounts of bleeding in puffs).
What are the main wedges? There are numerous causes of hemoptysis and large traits can be grouped in bronchopulmonary, cardiovascular, hematological and systemic, being the diagnosis quite complex. Until a few decades ago the main causes were tuberculosis and bronchiectasis. Currently the usual is to appear in the context of a bluetongue box and in a patient who already has a chronic disease of the lungs, known or not, such as chronic bronchitis or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), whose most common cause is tobacco. Between the two are responsible for one-third of the cases. Lung cancer is the second cause, and you always have to discard it, but it is responsible for 20% of hemoptysis, especially in smokers over forty years of age. Bronchiectasis, currently, is the third responsible cause of hemoptysis. Later, a lot more distance, there is a heterogeneous group of diseases that can cause hemoptysis: Infectious diseases, inflammatory, vascular, congenital malformations, anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication, thoracic injuries, etc.
What Are Reasons for Coughing Up Blood (First Time)
Although the bleeding by the mouth is very striking and produces anguish in patients, it is necessary to act calmly so as not to provoke new hemoptysis by our behavior. Reasons for coughing up blood. If a cough with blood is threaded in the sputum or is totally linked to the sputum, without being able to specify a minimum quantity, and it is one or two isolated in the day, you should go to the doctor at the next consultation, which will assess the clonic situation and perform the appropriate tests, which should always include a chest X-ray and a blood test and send , preferably, to the pulmonologist and if you think it is convenient, to the Otolaryngology, to complete the study. In case of Frank Hemoptysis will go directly to the nearest emergency service and if it is a massive hemoptysis or large amounts of puffs the most practical thing is to call the emergency service by phone and save resting on the bed with the body waist down in a higher position than the upper part to facilitate the blood leakage of the lungs by the mouth if the bleeding persists spontaneously. See also: Symptoms of Lung Cancer Due to Smoking.The vital risk is in not being able to eject from the mouth all the bloodshed inside of the chest, not on the amount of bleeding.
I have Hemoptysis Repeat! Sometimes, in patients with chronic diseases, e.g. bronchiectasis, have bleeding episodes (hemoptysis) of repetition. If the disease is known by the patient and has already been conveniently studied, and the bleeding episodes are mild, sputum mixed with blood (not frank hemoptysis) and usually self-limiting, it is not considered necessary to re-study it for part of the specialist; but if the recurrent episode appear after a year or more of the above or not are automatically limits or is threatening, treat it as if it was the first time and it is advisable to have the assessment of a specialist in pneumology.
How treat coughing? Do you have treatment? If after the study pneumology the diagnosis obtained has a causal treatment, for example, active pulmonary tuberculosis, pulmonary embolism etc, the problem is solved and the hemoptysis has only been more of a symptom of the disease that is causing it. At other times, and despite performing the steps and techniques hospital diagnostic (x-ray, scanner, scan, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, etc), and therapeutic or transitional (fiberoptic bronchoscopy, arteriography with embolization, etc), not to obtain a diagnosis-causative or is a chronic condition that needs regular monitoring by the specialist. Reasons for coughing up blood. Keep in mind that sometimes the only definitive treatment, if there is no alternative medical treatment or contraindicated, surgical intervention, provided that the causative disease can be dry or be removed.