Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Phlegm symptoms.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- What do you mean by phlegm symptoms?
Why: Phlegm is the mucus secreted in the respiratory passages and often expelled from the mouth such as in a cough.
- How long have you had the phlegm symptoms?
Why: To determine if acute or chronic i.e. chronic phlegm production is a productive moist cough that has been present and not improving for more than 4 weeks. Acute phlegm production may suggest acute upper respiratory tract infection (e.g. common cold or influenza), viral pneumonia or bacterial pneumonia. Chronic phlegm production is more suggestive of chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis, lung cancer or asthma.
- How would you describe the nature of the phlegm?
Why: e.g. copious amounts with offensive smell suggests bronchiectasis; pus-like sputum may suggest pneumonia, abscess, tuberculosis or bronchiectasis; yellow-green thick and sticky may suggest asthma; profuse and watery may suggest lung cancer; red-currant jelly may suggest lung cancer; pink and frothy may suggest left ventricular failure with pulmonary edema; blood-stained may suggest chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, lung cancer, lung metastasis, foreign body, left ventricular failure and mitral stenosis.
- How would you describe the nature of the cough?
Why: e.g. painful cough may suggest left ventricular heart failure, weak cough may suggest lung cancer.
- What time of the day is the cough worse?
Why: e.g. cough at night may suggest asthma, left ventricular failure, postnasal drip or chronic bronchitis; cough on waking may suggest bronchiectasis or chronic bronchitis.
- Is there a possibility of a foreign body such as a peanut having gone down the wrong way?
- Past medical history?
Why: recurrent lung infections from childhood may suggest cystic fibrosis or bronchiectasis; hay fever and eczema makes the chance of asthma more likely; heart attack, heart valve disease, high blood pressure, rheumatic heart disease increase the risk of congestive cardiac failure.
- Family history?
Why: e.g. asthma; cystic fibrosis; anyone in the family had tuberculosis or a chronic cough.
- Cigarette smoking
Why: past and present? - i.e. number of packets per day and number of years you have smoked. - Smoking itself will cause excessive phlegm production. Smoking increases the risk of chronic bronchitis and lung cancer and worsens outcome for tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchiectasis.
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Blood in sputum?
Why: may suggest chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, lung cancer, lung metastasis, foreign body, left ventricular failure and mitral stenosis.
- Wheeze?
Why: usually suggests asthma but may also be chronic bronchitis, foreign body, lung cancer, congestive heart failure.
- If has had a wheeze, have you had previous attacks of wheezing, hay fever or eczema?
Why: more likely to suggest asthma as cause of phlegm symptoms.
- Shortness of breath?
Why: In acute cases may suggest congestive heart failure and pneumonia. In chronic cases may suggest chronic congestive heart failure, tuberculosis and lung cancer.
- Orthopnea (breathlessness lying down flat)?
Why: suggests left ventricular heart failure.
- Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (inappropriate severe breathlessness causing waking from sleep)?
Why: suggests left ventricular failure.
- Weight loss?
Why: may suggest lung cancer, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis.
- Swelling of the legs?
Why: may suggest left ventricular heart failure.
- Stridor?
Why: may suggest foreign body.
- Fever?
Why: may suggest bacterial or viral pneumonia, tuberculosis, lung abscess or lung cancer.
- Leg swelling?
Why: may suggest congestive heart failure.
- Symptoms of frontal sinusitis?
Why: e.g. may follow an upper respiratory tract infection or rhinitis. Dull throbbing headache over the forehead and behind the eyes, often but not always unilateral. Often develops in the morning at around 9am and subsides around 6pm. Aggravated by leaning forward. May be associated with fever and phlegm production.
» Next page: Symptom combinations for Phlegm symptoms
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