A top GP has urged anyone who coughs up blood to see their doctor ASAP—it could be a symptom of a deadly illness or evidence of a life-threatening blood clot.
Dr Clare Thompson, who works at the Cadogan Clinic in London, told Daily Mail that regardless of if you’ve noticed a spittle of blood in mucus, or you’re faced with a teaspoon’s worth of blood all over your handkerchief, you shouldn’t ignore it.
She said: ‘I often find patients say, “Well, I’ve just had a spattering of blood”, and actually it’s quite a lot, and the opposite is true, too.
‘When it comes to coughing up blood, it could be something benign, or it could be something deathly serious—but there isn’t a sliding scale for us, we take every case seriously.’
Dr Thompson added that in the majority of cases your GP will take the necessary steps to treat you and arrange for imaging—which could be scans or an x-ray—to take a closer look at what’s going on in your lungs, with a follow-up appointment six weeks later to make sure the cause has resolved.
These scans can reveal the presence of tumours or shadowing in the lungs, which can be a sign of a chronic lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
But in the most serious case, when there is a suspected bloodclot—called a pulmonary embolus (PE) in medical terms—time is of the essence.
‘A PE is very life threatening, so you have to sort it out quickly and get them on a blood thinner to save their life,’ she said.
Dr Clare Thompson, who works at the Cadogan Clinic explained why people cough up blood
Below Dr Thompson shares the six of the most common reasons for coughing up blood.
Inhalation of a foreign object
Sometimes, says Dr Thompson, coughing up blood is caused by trauma to the lungs caused by inhaling a foreign object—and this is particularly true for children and people in manual and industrial jobs.
She said: ‘Kids sometimes accidentally swallow small pieces of Lego, little toys and little beads, and these can sometimes sit in their lungs for months.
‘Eventually, this becomes a chest infection, and the might cough up a bit of blood.
‘Whenever a child is coughing up blood, it’s not a good thing and they need to see a doctor ASAP and at the very least have a CT scan on their chest, or a chest X ray.’
But things even smaller than a bead can still cause havoc, with Dr Thompson citing ‘micro particles, tiny shards of metal, wood, or glass’ as potentially causing a lot of damage—and the risk is even greater if you’re exposed to asbestos.
She said: ‘If you’re inhaling tiny particles, you would need imaging done and potentially see a specialist.
‘There isn’t a sliding scale—we take every case of coughing up blood seriously’ (stock image)
‘In some cases you just need to wait for it to work its way out, which you’d know had happened when you haven’t coughed up any blood for a substantial amount of time.’
Chest infections
A lot of people will have coughed up blood while battling a chest infection—but it can also happen if you have a more serious virus which requires hospitalisation, such as pneumonia or tuberculosis.
‘You then might cough up blood as a result of just having an infection that’s not treated,’ she said. ‘Bacterial infection usually happens with fever, weight loss and cough.’
Dr Thompson explained that the blood comes from the lining of the lungs becoming inflamed.
She said: ‘Really bad chest infections like pneumonia can cause inflammation and irritation in the little air sacs in your lungs called alveoli, and that can cause you to cough up some blood.
‘In these instances you’re likely to go to the doctor anyway because you’ve got a cough, maybe a fever, maybe a bit of pain when you breathe in.
‘Your GP can give you some antibiotics in the very least.’
Smokers are at risk of developing COPD, but it can also be caused by genetic mutations (file photo)
COPD
People who smoke are at risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is an umbrella term for emphysema (damage to the air sacs in the lungs) and chronic bronchitis (long-term inflammation of the airways).
It causes the lungs to become inflamed, swollen and filled with mucus, making breathing hard.
Dr Thompson explained: ‘Because smoking damages the little air sacs called alveoli, a COPD flare up—which are more common in the wintertime—can cause you to get quite inflamed lung cells, and they can make you cough up blood.
‘For those patients, they get inhalers, steroids, and usually they get antibiotics so they are pretty well aware of when they’re having a flare up.
‘While they do normally have a cough, when it starts to be more mucky—with coloured phlegm, perhaps with specs of blood in it—they know they’ve developed an infection.’
It’s not only smokers who can develop COPD. The NHS states that some cases of COPD are caused by long-term exposure to harmful fumes or dust, while others are the result of a rare genetic problem that makes the lungs more vulnerable to damage.
Cancer
For many people, the first instance of coughing up blood has them thinking ‘cancer’ (file photo)
For many people, the first instance of coughing up blood has them thinking ‘cancer’—and Dr Thompson says that it’s never OK to assume it isn’t.
She said: ‘The most sinister cause is cause cancer, malignancy. If you’ve been coughing for more than four weeks, please go and see your GP.
‘They can arrange tests to rule out cancer, and it’s so important to remember that not all lung cancers are related to smoking—sometimes it’s sadly, a genetic thing, a mutation that might have been inherited from parents or grandparents.
‘The cancer rate is going up with everyone, you shouldn’t sit there and feel comfortable to wait just because you’ve got a cold. I still think you should go and have it investigated.’
Dr Thompson added that she always takes a lingering cough seriously and sends patients for scans.
She said: ‘Any coughing that lasts for more than four weeks that doesn’t have a discernible cause, like an infection, like a foreign body, like a heart valve problem, or a clotting issue, you definitely need to do some chest imaging.’
Blood clots
The most concerning reason for coughing up blood is because of a clot known as a pulmonary embolus.
In some extreme cases, coughing up blood is due to a clot—and it’s a medical emergency (file photo)
These, Dr Thompson said, usually happen after undergoing surgery or going on a long haul flight, and are caused by a deep vein thrombosis, which is a blood clot which forms due to lack of movement.
‘When you have a DVT, a clot forms in the leg and then a part of it breaks off, enters the bloodstream and can end up in your lungs, and you can start coughing blood that way.
Similarly it can happen after having surgery as you are lying unconscious and unmoving for a long period of time.
‘I’ve had a few patients who’ve had surgery and they had a bit of a cough afterwards, and then they started coughing blood,’ said Dr Thompson. ‘We’ve had to refer them for a CT chest scan and start them on some blood thinners quickly to save their life.’
She added that women who take the pill long-term can be at risk of clots as the contraception can cause thickening of the blood.
Heart conditions
Dr Thompson’s final common reason for coughing up blood is actually nothing to do with the lungs but the heart.
She said: ‘If you’ve got heart valve issues, because the heart is next door to the lungs, if the heart’s not working very well, this puts pressure onto the lungs.
‘This can cause high pressure in the lungs called pulmonary hypertension, and that causes irritation and bleeding of the lungs.’
She added that most patients who have a heart condition will have been warned by their cardiologist that this could happen as their disease progresses.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .