Dry cough for 6 months / bronchoscopy scheduled

KorynH

I’ve had a daily dry persistent cough and right side chest pain for 6 months. Allergy meds and reflux meds didn’t help at all.Chest CT showed linear Subsegmental atelectasis, but no acute pulmonary disease. Asthma test was negative. Echocardiogram negative. Can bronchoscope detect something not seen anywhere else?

Betrayal

Hi KorynH:

A bronchoscopy is an invasive diagnostic procedure that allows the physician to examine the tissues of the lung, culture secretions (if present), to biopsy any tissues that appear unusual and to perform cytologic (cell) examinations on tissues or secretions as indicated. As such, it reveals far more diagnostic information than the physician can see on a CT scan. Atelectasis is a condition associated with blockage (can be caused by presence of secretions) of the alveoli in the lungs and this is where gas exchange occurs (oxygen and carbon dioxide). The fact that no acute pulmonary disease was seen on CT (noninvasive study) scan is favorable. So I would suspect they are trying to get to the root cause of your persistent cough and chest pain. I hope this helps. Betrayal

vlnrph

As betrayal describes, bronchoscopy is very helpful in arriving at an accurate diagnosis so that proper therapy can be pursued. It's also possible to obtain samples for culture, to see whether infectious organisms might be present.

Pathology results for some of those can take several weeks because certain things like tuberculosis grow very slowly. Hopefully yours will be a more simple answer and you can start getting relief soon!

Since the procedure is performed under anesthesia, you need someone to drive for you. Let us know how it goes!