Can you exercise with pleurisy?

Written by Luo Peng
Thoracic Surgery
Updated on September 03, 2024
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Whether or not a patient with pleurisy can exercise should be determined based on the individual's specific condition. For mild pleurisy without pleural effusion and severe pain, exercise is permissible. However, if pleural effusion is present, it should be drained or aspirated first, after which exercise can be encouraged. Exercise should be moderate, as it can help absorb the pleural effusion, which is beneficial for the patient. Additionally, if pleurisy causes severe pain, it is best to minimize movement to avoid exacerbating the pain.

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Written by Liao Bin
Pulmonology
1min 13sec home-news-image

How to determine if it is pleurisy.

Determining whether it is pleurisy can be analyzed from the following points. First, regarding clinical symptoms, patients with pleurisy often experience pleuritic chest pain, that is, pain in the chest and rib area on the affected side during deep breathing or coughing, or an exacerbation of the pain. At this point, it is important to specifically exclude the formation of pleurisy. Of course, patients with pleurisy may sometimes also experience varying degrees of coughing, and some patients may also have a fever. As the condition of pleurisy progresses, pleural effusion gradually forms, and this type of pleuritic chest pain gradually reduces, which requires careful differential diagnosis. Patients with pleurisy also need to undergo chest X-ray or CT scans, especially chest CT scans which can reveal pleural thickening and sometimes the formation of a small amount of pleural effusion. At this stage, a diagnosis of pleurisy can be confirmed. Therefore, the diagnosis of pleurisy must be made in conjunction with its specific clinical symptoms and chest imaging studies to make a precise determination.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Does pleural calcification easily turn into cancer?

Pleurisy is a very common type of inflammatory lesion clinically. There are many factors that cause pleurisy, and it is generally seen in young and middle-aged males, mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of the pleural cavity. If the pleurisy is tuberculous, it is usually treated with effective anti-tuberculosis medications systematically, which typically requires a course of 6 to 9 months. After complete recovery from pleurisy, many patients may show varying degrees of calcification spots in the pleural cavity. Generally, these calcification spots after recovery from pleurisy do not easily become cancerous.

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Written by Wu Xiao Sheng
Pulmonology
42sec home-news-image

Is tuberculous pleurisy contagious?

Tuberculous pleurisy generally does not transmit. Tuberculous pleurisy is a special clinical type of tuberculosis, caused by the proliferation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on the pleura. Tuberculous pleurisy can cause symptoms such as afternoon low fever, night sweats, weight loss, and even chest tightness and shortness of breath. However, since tuberculous pleurisy is not open tuberculosis, it does not release the tuberculosis bacteria into the environment, and thus lacks a definitive transmission route. Hence, tuberculous pleurisy is mostly not contagious to others. Although tuberculous pleurisy is an infectious disease, its infectivity is extremely low.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Is it normal to occasionally have chest pain with pleurisy?

Pleurisy is a very common type of disease, with many triggering factors. Most cases of pleurisy are caused by infection of the pleural cavity by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, leading to inflammatory lesions. Once pleurisy is diagnosed, patients should promptly receive anti-tuberculosis medication for effective treatment. It is commonly known that if pleurisy is not controlled promptly and effectively, it may lead to worsening symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and chest pain, so these clinical symptoms are also very common in patients with pleurisy. Therefore, it is very common for patients with pleurisy to experience chest pain. Even after complete recovery from pleurisy, there may be varying degrees of chest pain, which is considered normal. This is because pleurisy in the acute phase may involve different degrees of adhesions, hence chest pain may occur later on as well.

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Written by Luo Peng
Thoracic Surgery
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Can you exercise with pleurisy?

Whether or not a patient with pleurisy can exercise should be determined based on the individual's specific condition. For mild pleurisy without pleural effusion and severe pain, exercise is permissible. However, if pleural effusion is present, it should be drained or aspirated first, after which exercise can be encouraged. Exercise should be moderate, as it can help absorb the pleural effusion, which is beneficial for the patient. Additionally, if pleurisy causes severe pain, it is best to minimize movement to avoid exacerbating the pain.