Coughing up blood (hemoptysis) – causes, treatment & prevention

Coughing up blood (hemoptysis)

Coughing up blood ( hemoptysis ) refers to coughing up mucus and blood or just blood. The cause can lie in various lung and respiratory diseases. Tumors in the lungs, bronchitis and tuberculosis are the most common reasons for coughing up blood.

What is coughing up blood (hemoptysis)?

Haemoptysis (coughing up blood) is a symptom that is not an independent disease, as it can be caused by different diseases. The appearance is characterized by the sick person coughing up mucous sputum mixed with blood. In some cases, hemoptysis can also consist of coughing up blood.

The blood comes from either the lungs or the respiratory tract and is usually venous, rarely arterial. Arterial blood can be recognized by the sputum appearing fizzy and foamy. In these cases, there are alarming warning signs that should be consulted immediately by a doctor (emergency doctor, if necessary).

Hemoptysis is sometimes equated with the more general term hemoptysis; however, in hemoptysis, a larger amount of blood or blood alone is coughed up.

Causes

The causes of hemoptysis are very varied. The most well-known disease associated with coughing up blood is tuberculosis. However, its incidence in western countries has decreased to the point where it is far from being the most likely cause of hemoptysis.Another possible cause is a pulmonary embolism, in which blood vessels in the lungs are blocked; about 80% of the constipation is due to a thrombosis that starts in the blood vessels of the legs or pelvis. When the blood platelets combine, a blood clot is formed, which breaks off as a “clump” and can settle at a narrow point in the blood circulation – for example in the lungs – and thus block the blood vessels.

ruptured lung , lung cancer or legionellosis (an infectious disease) can also be potential triggers for hemoptysis. They cause relatively immediate damage to the pulmonary blood vessels from physical pressure on the vessel walls, allowing blood to leak out.

Hemoptysis can also be due to bronchiectasis: In this disease, sac-like or cylindrical expansions form in the bronchi, which form small pockets. These pockets, in turn, are filled with pus and lead to bacterial infection of the bronchial wall, as well as tissue death.

Some forms of hemoptysis are hereditary – as in the case of Osler syndrome, in which nodules of 2-5 mm in diameter form on the skin, internal organs and also mucous membranes; The Ceelen-Gellerstedt syndrome, which already appears in childhood, is also a hereditary disease: here the pulmonary bleeding (and thus also the coughing up blood) occurs recurrently, caused by an overreaction of the body’s own immune system .

Diseases

Diagnosis and course

Depending on which disease the hemoptysis is based on, the diagnostic process and the course of the disease differ significantly from each other. When the doctor presents the coughing up blood, the immediate and indirect causes are first looked for.

A typical procedure is a detailed analysis of the sputum and an examination of the respiratory tract (including the nose, throat, trachea and esophagus). Since it is usually not immediately clear whether the blood comes from the airways or the gastrointestinal tract, both possibilities must be checked.

As a rule, the patient’s blood count is also determined, for example to identify anemia , infections or tumor markers – which suggests potential causes of the hemoptysis. The source of the coughing up blood can be located using an X-ray or bronchoscopy. Further precise examinations and a detailed questioning of the person concerned are also common in the diagnosis of hemoptysis.

Treatment and therapy

Depending on the cause, the underlying disease needs to be treated. In the case of lung cancer, this can be radiation and/or chemotherapy, for example, and antibiotics can be used in the case of infectious or inflammatory causes.

If the cause of the hemoptysis is a visible disease, the options for treating the causes of the bleeding are sometimes limited: To date, there is no effective therapy for Ceelen-Gellerstedt syndrome and around 60% of the affected children die within the first twelve years after occurrence of coughing up blood.

Prevention

Since coughing up blood is only a symptom (ie the visible expression of a disease) and not a disease in its own right, preventive measures can only be taken very broadly. There is good prevention, for example, for thrombosis, which can lead to blockage of blood vessels and thus to pulmonary embolism: Sufficient exercise and not sitting or lying down for too long can significantly reduce the risk of blood clots forming. A balanced diet and avoidance of smoking are also recommended to prevent hemoptysis.

Dorothy Farrar

Hello and welcome to my Health Guide & Encyclopedia! My name is Dorothy Farrar, and I'm the founder and main author of this platform.
My passion for health and wellness started at a young age when I became interested in the connection between the food we eat and the way we feel. This fascination led me to study nutrition and dietetics in college, where I learned about the importance of a balanced diet and the impact of various nutrients on the body.

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