Lung infiltration can occur for a variety of reasons: When your lung tissue contains an abnormal presence of granulomas, when your airspaces fill with fluid (pulmonary oedema), inflammatory exudates (white cells or pus, protein and immunological substances) or cells (malignant cells, red cells or haemorrhage).
These symptoms can fill a region of the lung and increase the visual impression of increased soft tissue density which can show up on a chest x-ray as pulmonary infiltration. This can lead to various respiratory symptoms depending on the severity of the infiltration, the most common being dyspnea (shortness of breath) and a persistent, dry, and hacking cough. This can lead to Fibrosis (hardening and thickening of tissue) which may leave permanent scarring, although in most cases the infiltration will clear up.
Interestingly, in the United States studies have shown that Caucasian patients show 80 per cent of stage 1 cases spontaneously clearing up without treatment compared with only 33 per cent of African American patients. The younger the patient, the less likely the infiltration will become chronic and lead to fibrosis.
Other symptoms to watch out for with granulomas include spitting up of blood from the lungs, hoarseness, nasal congestion or air in the chest outside the lungs (Pneumothorax) which can lead to a collapsed lung, chest pain and noisy or difficult breathing.
There is a group of 'idiopathic infiltrative lung diseases' numbering more than a hundred which tend to spread or infiltrate through much of the lung tissue and the cause of many of these is not known. Some forms of fFibrosis do have specific causes such as exposure to dusts like asbestos or some bird droppings or from an infection by viruses or the bacterium causing tuberculosis.
These symptoms can fill a region of the lung and increase the visual impression of increased soft tissue density which can show up on a chest x-ray as pulmonary infiltration. This can lead to various respiratory symptoms depending on the severity of the infiltration, the most common being dyspnea (shortness of breath) and a persistent, dry, and hacking cough. This can lead to Fibrosis (hardening and thickening of tissue) which may leave permanent scarring, although in most cases the infiltration will clear up.
Interestingly, in the United States studies have shown that Caucasian patients show 80 per cent of stage 1 cases spontaneously clearing up without treatment compared with only 33 per cent of African American patients. The younger the patient, the less likely the infiltration will become chronic and lead to fibrosis.
Other symptoms to watch out for with granulomas include spitting up of blood from the lungs, hoarseness, nasal congestion or air in the chest outside the lungs (Pneumothorax) which can lead to a collapsed lung, chest pain and noisy or difficult breathing.
There is a group of 'idiopathic infiltrative lung diseases' numbering more than a hundred which tend to spread or infiltrate through much of the lung tissue and the cause of many of these is not known. Some forms of fFibrosis do have specific causes such as exposure to dusts like asbestos or some bird droppings or from an infection by viruses or the bacterium causing tuberculosis.
