Hemoptysis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Name of Symptom/Sign:
**Hemoptysis**
*Classifications and external resources*
ICD-10	R 04.2
ICD-9	786.3
DiseasesDB	5578
MedlinePlus	003073

Hemoptysis (US English) or haemoptysis (International English) is the expectoration (coughing up) of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs (e.g. in tuberculosis or other respiratory infections).

It is not the same as Hematemesis, which refers to vomiting up blood.

[edit] Causes

This can be due to bronchitis or pneumonia most commonly, but also to lung neoplasm (in smokers, when hemoptysis is persistent), tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, coccidioidomycosis, pulmonary embolism, or pneumonic plague.

Rarer causes include hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT or Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome), or Goodpasture's syndrome and Wegener's granulomatosis.

In children it is commonly due to a foreign body in the respiratory tract.

It can result from over-anticoagulation from treatment by drugs such as warfarin.

We can determine the origin of blood expectorated by observing its colour. Bright red, foamy blood comes from the respiratory tract while dark red, coffee-like colour blood comes from the gastrointestinal tract.