Lung Nodules
If you feel pressure on the outside of a lung or an air passage is blocked then you have Atelectasis. This condition can be caused by anesthesia, lung disease, mucus in the airway to the lung or long time best rest when few body positions took place. It can also be cause by tumors, a foreign object the blocks the airway or pressure on the lung from a fluid buildup. Shallow breathing, believe it or not, can also cause this type of lung condition. Any of these will cause you to have difficulty in breathing, a cough or chest pain. It is also possible to have lung nodules that were caused by many things that affect the lungs. These can be non-cancerous and can be caused by the infection that comes from having tuberculosis.
Histoplasmosis is another infection that can infect the lungs and be the what causes lung nodules. This is when bird or certain type of bat droppings have been inhaled to create this infection called Histoplasmosis. Blood vessel abnormalities can also be the cause of lung nodules. The doctor will take a chest x-ray to do a CT scan to find out if any of the lung nodules are benign or cancerous. Any lung nodules that are seen to be less than one inch are generally not cancerous and then later you will have a future x-ray to see if they have grown.
It is possible for a biopsy to be done to get a sample for examination. This sample can be gotten in one of two ways. One way will be for a surgical incision to be made in the chest to get a piece of lung tissue. The other way is to go through the mouth or nose with a lighted instrument for viewing and this is called a bronchoscope. This can be done at an outpatient procedure. This sample will go to a pathologist who will look at it under a microscope. The benign nodules require no treatment at all, but if they are caused by another condition, then once that condition is treated, they should subside. If a lung nodule is found to be cancerous then it can be removed if the cancer cells are located only in the lungs. Any cancer can spread to other parts of the body and so it cannot be fully removed with surgery alone. In this case of advanced cancer, either chemotherapy or radiation will be prescribed.
