Haemoptysis

Haemoptysis (from two Greek words meaning spitting blood). This symptom is to be distinguished from haematemesis (q.v.). In haemoptysis the blood comes from the lungs or the air passages, not from the stomach, as is the case in haematemesis. Haemoptysis may be due to inflammation, ulceration, or cancerous or tubercular disease affecting the larynx, trachea, bronchii, or substance of the lung itself. In rare instances an aortic aneurism may burst into the air passages. Lastly pulmonary apoplexy may be mentioned, in which disease effusion of blood occurs in the texture of the lung, and the extravasated material is partly coughed up and partly accumulates in the tissues. Haemoptysis is oftentimes the first symptom of consumption, that is, of the deposit of tubercle in the lung.