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Pulmonary nocardiosis - Symptom

Alternative Names

Nocardiosis - pulmonary

Symptoms:

Entire body
- Fever (comes and goes)
- General ill feeling (malaise)
- Night sweats, excessive sweating at night
Gastrointestinal system
- Nausea
- Swollen liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly)
- Unintentional weight loss
- Vomiting
Lungs and airways
- Breathing gets harder and harder (pulmonary insufficiency)
- Chest pain not due to heart problems
- Coughing up blood
- Cough with mucus
- Rapid breathing
- Shortness of breath
Muscles and joints
- Joint pain
Nervous system
- Change in mental state
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Seizures
Skin
- Skin rashes or lumps
- Skin sores (abscesses)
- Swollen lymph nodes

Signs and tests:

Bronchial alveolar lavage - fluid is sent for stain and culture
Bronchoscopy
Chest x-ray
Crackles (rales) in the infected lung detected by stethoscope
CT scan
Decreased breath sounds in the lung
Pleural fluid culture and stain
Sputum stain and culture

Respiratory system

Reviewed last on: 9/13/2008
Benjamin Medoff, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Southwick FS. Nocardiosis. In: Goldman L, Ausiello D, eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007: chap 351.

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