Study of patients with active hemoptysis in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Eastern India

Abstract

Background: Hemoptysis is one of the common symptoms for which patients’ attending hospital. The etiology should be established. An early intervention will save life of patients. The spectrum of diseases presents with hemoptysis is vast. If the etiology is identified early, this will help in prompt management. This study was conducted to find out the etiological diagnosis of hemoptysis. Methods: This study was conducted in IQ City Medical College and Hospital, Durgapur, West Bengal. We started the study on December 2019 and continued till November 2020 over a period of one year. It was a cross sectional observational study. This study was institution-based study. The study population was patients attending the hospital with the complaints of active hemoptysis. The sample size for this study was 110. Results: Total 110 patients were included in the study. Out of which, there were male 72 and female 38. Average age of the patients was 48.2 years. About 78 patients came from rural area while 32 patients were from urban area. The result of this study showed, 57(52%) patients had active pulmonary tuberculosis, 24 (22%) patients had bronchiectasis, 9 patients had malignancy, 6 patients were suffering from pneumonia, 2 patients had fungal ball, 2 patients had collagen vascular diseases, 1 patient was found to be having mitral stenosis related complication, 1 patient had pulmonary embolism, 2 patients presented with hemoptysis due to chest trauma, the etiology of hemoptysis for 6 patients could not be identified. According to the severity of active hemoptysis, 55 patients presented with mild hemoptysis, 30 patients presented with moderate hemoptysis, while 25 patients had come to the emergency with complaints of massive hemoptysis. Conclusion: A wide spectrum of diseases may present with hemoptysis. The most common cause of hemoptysis is active pulmonary tuberculosis. The second common cause is bronchiectasis. Most of the cases presented with massive hemoptysis are due to pulmonary tuberculosis. The bronchogenic carcinoma patients presented mostly with streaky hemoptysis.