A five-year analysis of patients with hemoptysis admitted to the pulmonary diseases clinic of Cumhuriyet University Hospital

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the most common causes of hemoptysis and the methods utilized for the diagnosis, to determine the relationship between the etiological factors and the amount of hemoptysis, to establish the association between exposures and hemoptysis, and to reveal other possible factors related to hemoptysis in patients admitted to our clinic due to hemoptysis between January 2005 and December 2009. Thus, 385 cases were evaluated retrospectively. The most common causes of hemoptysis in the whole study population were identified as pneumonia, lung cancer and, pulmonary thromboembolism (33%, 14.8 and 14.0%, respectively). A stepwise approach including clinical and laboratory techniques, radiological methods, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and echocardiograpy enhances the diagnosis of hemoptysis.