May 25, 2012
Topics A-Z Coughs Why Am I Coughing up Blood?
Why Am I Coughing up Blood? |
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Dear Ask The Doctor: I am a 40 year old non-smoking woman. But, despite being in good health, I have been coughing up blood fairly regularly for the last week and a half. On the Friday morning before Memorial Day, I turned onto my right side and felt gurgling. I started coughing and then I realized stuff was coming up as I coughed. When I went into the bathroom, I realized it was blood. I went into the emergency room that day and I was hospitalized. They did a chest x-ray, Catscan, and bronchoscopy and all came out clear. They were unable to determine the cause of the bleeding. I coughed up blood 4 times during the time that I was hospitalized. They released me thinking it was a burst blood vessel that would heal, but I have coughed up blood two times since leaving the hospital, the last incident being tonight, Tuesday, June 7th. I coughed up 5 oz. of bright red blood, mucus, saliva combination. I am going to call my doctor in the morning to see what he says, but I was just wondering if you have any suggestions as to a possible cause. Dear Diane: From your symptoms the top differential diagnosis to consider would be some lunf infection;/cancer, A peptic ulcer or some form of Gastrointestinal bleed which is leading to the coughing up of blood. Since you have already has a brochoscopy as well as a CT i would advice you to underdo a endoscopy to see the state of your esophagus and the stomach and to identify whether the source of bleeding is from there. I would also like to rule out any spread of the hodgkins disease by conduction a repeat CT. I hope this helps. All the best. |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 June 2011 ) |
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