Bronchitits

[qwerty234]

Hi Doc,

I posted up a question a few days ago. I finally went to urgent care after work and took a Chest x-ray which showed bronchitis.All I remember is the Dr. saying it was bacterial because x-ray showed bacteria showed up  in different sections and he gave me Amoxcillian and told me to drink lots of fluid. I still continue to have a wet cough only around 9am-12pm, then it seems to go away. My nose finally cleared up so it's not that congested anymore.

I have a some questions:

1. Does bronchitis really show up on an x-ray? According to various medical websites it does not show up. I'm afraid it's something else.

2. How does the doctor know if it's bacterial or virus bronchitits? The only test I took was x-ray, no other test.

3. They also said it was acute, but I had the same thing happen to me 3.5 years ago. I'm a daily marijuana smoker but do not smoke tobacco. I plan to quit for GOOD. I wonder if it's chronic bronchitis. I'm only 27 but do have mild ashtma as a child.

4. What treatment do you suggest to get rid of all this phelgm?

5. Should I just chill out or should I see a lung specialist immediately?

[David Tinkelman, M.D.]

There are not definite, specific changes seen on the chest X-ray of a person with acute bronchitis.  One may see non-specific changes such as thickening of bronchial walls or mucous plugging but the diagnosis is made primarily on the basis of clinical findings. These include cough, often severe and persistent after fever and other symptoms have subsided,, wheezes or similar sounds on examination of the lungs and, in some instances discolored mucous.   In many instances lung infections are not purely bronchitis but may be a combination of bronchitis and pneumonia and the urgent care physician may have noted X-ray findings suggestive of bronchitis, pneumonia or both.   Acute bronchitis is often caused by viruses, less often by bacteria and, not infrequently, by organisms that are neither bacterial or viral, called Mycoplasma.  The X-ray picture is not specific for any of these.  Another infectious cause, seen increasingly in recent years, is whooping cough, even in those who were vaccinated in childhood.  And yet another cause would the the “Flu”, influenza.

Your description suggests that you are now recovering.  If that is correct, and especially if you are not having chills or fever, are experiencing a diminished cough, have a good appetite,  or have any other symptom of a worsening disease, then you could safely wait, re-assessing your condition (from your point of view) every 24 hours.

The term acute simply means of recent onset.  One could commonly experience two or more episodes of acute bronchitis with long symptom free intervals in between.  Chronic, as applied to (chronic) bronchitis, means you have a chronic productive cough more than 6 months a year.  Having had two episodes, years apart, has no negative connotation.  It does however suggest that you should give up any and all types of smoking, tobacco or marijuana.

Good luck

[qwerty234]

btw they did perform other test but none were lung related. i had a EKG and tons of blood test that came out fine. i called 2x to make sure x-ray was 100% certain and they practically laughed at me when I asked if bronchitis shows up on x-rays. They said it happens all the time, but im not too sure of that.