Profile of patients presenting with hemoptysis at a tertiary care center in India

Abstract

Background: This study was designed to study the frequency distribution of etiology of various grades of severity of hemoptysis and to determine the influence of underlying etiology on the type of treatment modalities selected. Materials and Methods: Adult patients presenting with hemoptysis at a tertiary care hospital over 18 months were included in the study. Detailed analysis of their clinical profile, underlying etiologies as well as management, modalities, and a 6-month follow-up was done. Results: One hundred and five patients were included in the final analysis. Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) sequelae were the most common etiology of hemoptysis across all grades of severity. Active PTB was the second leading cause. Chronic cavitary pulmonary aspergillosis (CCPA) was diagnosed in 6.6% of patients who mostly presented with massive hemoptysis. Bronchial artery embolization (BAE) was done in 15 patients. Most of the patients undergoing BAE had old PTB (53%) and CCPA (33%) with moderate-to-massive hemoptysis. Conclusions: Tuberculosis and its sequelae continue to be the most common etiology of hemoptysis in India. CCPA is a significant predictor of “moderate and massive” hemoptysis (5 out of 7 patients of CCPA) and these patients had recurrence of hemoptysis even after BAE. BAE is successful in decreasing the severity of hemoptysis and has a high utility in developing countries like India.

Keywords

• bronchial artery embolization
• chronic cavitary pulmonary aspergillosis
• hemoptysis
• pulmonary tuberculosis