Is pleurisy serious in young people?

Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
Updated on September 09, 2024
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Pleurisy, when it occurs in young people, is also relatively common in clinical settings. It is primarily caused by an invasion of the pleura by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, resulting in an inflammatory lesion. The symptoms manifested by these patients mainly include coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, chest pain, and in severe cases, respiratory difficulties. Tuberculous pleurisy is mostly seen in adolescents and children. If young people are diagnosed with pleurisy and receive timely and accurate diagnosis, along with systematic and effective treatment with anti-tuberculosis drugs, their condition can generally be effectively controlled. However, it is important to note that although young people have better resistance, they must strictly adhere to the treatment duration for anti-tuberculosis medication, which usually spans six to nine months to completely cure pleurisy.

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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 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 Liu Jing Jing
Pulmonology
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Is pleurisy ascites easy to treat?

Whether pleurisy with effusion is easy to treat depends on identifying the cause of the pleurisy, which commonly includes tuberculosis, infection, and tumors. Tuberculous pleurisy can usually be cured about six months to a year after standard anti-tuberculosis treatment; infectious pleurisy generally has a good prognosis if it is sensitive to anti-infective drugs; however, pleurisy caused by tumors often indicates metastasis to the pleura, and at this stage, surgical options are no longer viable, leading to a poor prognosis. Therefore, if pleurisy is present, it is necessary to go to the hospital to complete thoracic puncture and clarify the nature of the pleural effusion, and treat according to the cause.

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Written by An Yong Peng
Pulmonology
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Pleurisy is caused by what?

Pleurisy is often caused by various pathogens, such as viral infections, which can lead to pleurisy termed viral pleurisy. Viral pleurisy typically presents with noticeable chest pain, and may even be accompanied by tenderness in the chest wall. Similarly, bacterial infections can also cause pleurisy. If the infection is a purulent bacterial infection, it is known as purulent pleurisy. Generally, those with purulent pleurisy experience high fever symptoms. Another common cause of pleurisy is tuberculosis infection, known as tuberculous pleurisy. Typical symptoms of tuberculous pleurisy include low-grade fever in the afternoon, night sweats, and may also include chest tightness and chest pain.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Can pleurisy cause hemoptysis?

Pleurisy, this disease in clinical practice, does not cause symptomatic hemoptysis on its own. This is because pleurisy is mainly due to bacterial invasion into the pleural cavity causing inflammatory lesions. The pleural cavity is a sealed space, which, when inflamed, often causes symptoms such as fever, cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties when there is a significant accumulation of fluid in the chest cavity. Generally, it does not cause hemoptysis. There is only one possibility, for example, intense irritative coughing in patients with pleurisy may rupture the capillaries in the bronchial walls. In this case, patients might experience varying degrees of coughing with blood, but this is not a direct clinical symptom caused by pleurisy itself.