fluid in lungs

My Mom has chronic kidney failure, is type II diabetic, had heart bypass surgery; a couple of strokes; twice broken leg that is pretty well healed. The Dr listened to her lungs and said there is fluid in them. No sign of infection. What could this be?

[National Jewish]

There are a number of reasons why the lung can become congested with fluid.  Among those are chronic kidney failure, chronic kidney disease without frank failure but with excessive protein loss, called nephrotic syndrome, congestive heart disease, disease of a heart valve, fat emboli (clots) in association with long bone fractures, IV salt and/or water overload, high altitude, acute infection such as pneumonia with or without fever, and chronic infection with tuberculosis (TB) being a prime example.  And, there are other less common causes.

The suspicion of fluid on physical exam should be followed by reevaluation of kidney function and a chest x-ray.  With this information it should be possible to decide-upon the most likely cause(s) and initiate appropriate therapy.