ackground : Hemoptysis being a nonspecific symptom often presents a diagnostic
dilemma, requiring the aid of even flexible bronchofiberscopy, a novel approach, fo rdisgnosis,
especially in the cases where hemoptysis attak is repetitive or where diagnosis is tentative at
best. Bronchoscopy is essential for pathologic diagnosis of lung cancer, which must be
differentiated from other casuses of hemoptysis.
Methods ; The autors evaluated a total of 479 patients who underwent bronchoscopy for
the purpose of diagnosis of hemopysis.
Results ;
1) Active pulmonary tuberculosis was the most common cause of hemoptysis, followed by
chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, and bronchiectasis.
2) The most common diagnosis by bronchoscopy was bronchitis, followed by active
tuberculosis, and lung cancer.
3) It was possible in 47.2 percent of cases to identify bleeding points on bronchoscopy.
The bleeding sites were most frequent in both upper lobes without predilection for each lung.
4) The most common cause of blood-tinged sputum was chronic bronchitis, actvie
tuberculosis, or lung cancer, whereas massive hemoptysis I.e., more than 200 mL of blood a
day, was the result of active tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, or aspergilloma.
5) Advacned age (especially more than 50 years), history of smoking or more than one
month of bloodtinged sputum were significantly more common in the patients with than
without lung cancer.
Conclustion : Flexible bronchofiberscopy is essential for th ediagnosis of underlying causes
of hemoptysis. The high incidence of active tuberculosis and tuberculosis-related diseases in
our patients seems to refelect this hospital being a tertiary care center to which often the
probolem cases are referred.
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