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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Chest X-ray Showed Scars. Diagnosed As Cough Patches. Have Intermittent Dry Cough. Cure?

Sir, I am 56 year old male. Recently x-ray chest denoted with scars which doctor announced that it is an old cough patch or fibrosis . After hearing that I am half dead, because neither a drunkard, smoker or consumer of local drugs. 20 days back got affected flu & dry cough and controlled locally now. After 10 days dry cough changed and emitting yellow sputum with a running nose and still it is continuing. Frequency of cough reduced. Traced a little blood stained sputum at morning time. But there is no loss of weight, loss of appetite , fatigue or shortness of breath.. But feeling increased heart beat and air intake times. I am able to hear the heart beat. The cough started on 2011 while i inhaled high density Benzene fumes that flown out of the refinery for several days in Saudi Arabia. The symptom started with soar throat , change in sound, itching in vocal cords and suffering to speak for several days and this continued for a long time. Now it is arising intermittently while I am getting flu or so. Is it serious or need an immediate medical aid. Please advice.
posted on Sat, 16 Mar 2013
Twitter Sat, 16 Mar 2013 Answered on
Twitter Thu, 21 Mar 2013 Last reviewed on
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Critical Care Specialist,  's  Response
Hello
Welcome to health care magic
Dear patient, you are right that you had never been a smoker, drunkard or a drug addict but finding an old patch of fibrosis in your lungs is nothing unusul because it could have simply resulted from the chemical pneumonitis that you would have suffered after inhalation of high denesity benzene perfumes 2 years back. A patch of fibrosis in the lungs is not a big deal because till more than 50% of your lungs are functioning normally, it is not going to affect your breathing much even during . exercises. However the current episode of cough with yellowish sputum and yellowish nasal discharge along with blood tinged sputum following 10 days after flu simply indicates secondary bacterial pneumonitis that can happen as a complication of influenza (flu) and again this in not also a big problem because it can easily get cured with antibiotics and other supportive treatement. However since your age is more than 50 years so it is always better to rule out neoplastic (tumour) lession in the lungs for which you can get HRCT (high resolution CT Scan) of the chest done if that shows there is no neoplastic lession then you should not worry at all about that fibrotic patch
wish you speedy recovery
thanks
Dr Arshad
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Chest X-ray Showed Scars. Diagnosed As Cough Patches. Have Intermittent Dry Cough. Cure?

Hello Welcome to health care magic Dear patient, you are right that you had never been a smoker, drunkard or a drug addict but finding an old patch of fibrosis in your lungs is nothing unusul because it could have simply resulted from the chemical pneumonitis that you would have suffered after inhalation of high denesity benzene perfumes 2 years back. A patch of fibrosis in the lungs is not a big deal because till more than 50% of your lungs are functioning normally, it is not going to affect your breathing much even during . exercises. However the current episode of cough with yellowish sputum and yellowish nasal discharge along with blood tinged sputum following 10 days after flu simply indicates secondary bacterial pneumonitis that can happen as a complication of influenza (flu) and again this in not also a big problem because it can easily get cured with antibiotics and other supportive treatement. However since your age is more than 50 years so it is always better to rule out neoplastic (tumour) lession in the lungs for which you can get HRCT (high resolution CT Scan) of the chest done if that shows there is no neoplastic lession then you should not worry at all about that fibrotic patch wish you speedy recovery thanks Dr Arshad