27 Devastating Infectious Diseases

What Does It Mean When Your Left Lung Hurts?

The lungs have few pain receptors, so pain in the lungs usually starts elsewhere in the body. Possible causes of left-side lung or chest pain when breathing in include costochondritis and pneumothorax.

However, some lung-related conditions can result in pain in the left lung.

The chest contains several vital organs, including the heart and lungs. Because of this, it is understandable why someone experiencing pain in this area may worry about what is causing it.

This article examines some potential causes of lung pain and what people can do if they experience this symptom.

The following include some of the more common causes of lung pain, including left lung pain:

Asthma

Asthma is a condition that causes airway inflammation and lung irritability, which makes people more prone to wheezing and shortness of breath.

Chronic coughing and wheezing relating to asthma can cause feelings of chest tightness.

Typically, this will make a person's chest tight on both sides, not just the left.

Costochondritis

Costochondritis refers to inflammation of the connective tissue that joins a person's ribs to their breastbone. Costochondritis can cause pain that feels like chest pain, which can occur on one side.

Hyperventilation

Hyperventilation, or rapid breathing, can result from illness or panic attacks. This condition can affect the typical balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen inside the body.

One of the primary symptoms of hyperventilation is chest tightness.

A person may also experience dizziness, headache, and trouble concentrating.

Lung cancer

Lung cancer does not usually cause symptoms at first. As lung cancer spreads, a person may notice symptoms such as a chronic cough, shortness of breath, and feeling tired or weak for no known reason.

Pneumothorax

Pneumothorax is a portion or all of a lung collapsing. This can cause sudden and significant chest pain on the affected side of the chest.

A pneumothorax can occur suddenly or after an injury or illness.

Pleural effusion

Pleural effusion is a condition where excess fluid builds up inside the lining of the lung, known as the pleural space. This buildup can cause difficulty breathing and discomfort on the affected side.

Pleurisy

This condition occurs when the two membranes of the chest wall become inflamed. When they rub against each other, pain and shortness of breath can occur.

When a person has pleurisy, a doctor will perform various tests to find the cause. The cause could be a viral infection, trauma, or lupus, an autoimmune disorder that attacks a person's tissues and organs.

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a severe respiratory infection that can affect one or both lungs. If pneumonia is on the affected side, a person may experience pain in that lung.

Additional symptoms might include a cough, fever, chills, and shortness of breath.

Pulmonary embolism

A pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blood clot or clots in the lungs' arteries. A PE can occur after a person has had surgery or been sedentary for some time.

While some causes of left-sided chest pain may be mild, others can cause concern. Some signs that left lung pain could be a medical emergency include:

chest pain, particularly chest pain that radiates down the left arm

coughing up blood

lips or fingernails that are bluish in tint, which can indicate that a person is not getting enough oxygen

shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

a temperature higher than 105°F (40.5°C)

If someone experiences these or other symptoms, they need to call 911 or have someone drive them to the emergency room immediately.

Signs of lung cancer

Lung cancer signs can include:

long-term changes to the sound and tone of a person's voice, such as hoarseness

chronic infection, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, that will not go away

a cough that does not get better over time

coughing up rust-colored or blood-tinged mucus

unexplained feelings of fatigue and weakness

wheezing with no known underlying cause

If someone experiences these symptoms, they need to consult a doctor.

Learn more about lung cancer signs.

Whether the pain relates to the lung or feels like it is, a person needs to consult their doctor if it interferes with their everyday life.

This is especially true if the pain is worsening instead of improving.

A doctor will diagnose the cause of left chest pain by taking a medical history and physical examination.

The doctor will ask questions about what makes the pain worse, what makes it better, and when the pain began. They will also listen to the lungs with a stethoscope.

Imaging tests

A doctor may recommend initial imaging studies, such as a chest X-ray, to identify potential issues relating to the lungs. If this X-ray does not reveal any problems, but the doctor suspects an underlying problem, they may recommend further testing.

Further tests could include an MRI or CT scan. These imaging studies can provide different, high quality pictures of the lungs to aid in a diagnosis.

Blood tests

Other testing modes may include a complete blood count to identify a person's number of white blood cells. A high white blood cell count could indicate that an infection is present in the body.

Another test a doctor might use is a cardiac enzyme panel. This determines whether pain in the left lung is, in fact, chest pain relating to a heart attack or another heart problem.

Doctors may also recommend individual tests according to a person's symptoms and left lung pain.

Resting and taking over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, can help if the cause relates to the muscles around the lung.

Treatments for other possible causes of left lung pain can vary. For example, if a person has a collapsed left lung, a doctor may insert a small tube between the ribs and into the space around the lung to re-inflate it.

Doctors may prescribe antibiotics to treat respiratory-related infections due to bacteria.

The most important thing to do is consult a doctor who can begin the diagnostic process so treatment can begin as soon as possible.

Here are some answers to common questions about left lung pain.

What does it mean when your left lung hurts?

Left lung pain can result from many issues, such as asthma, inflammation, injury, or an underlying condition.

How do I know if I have lung pain or muscle pain?

Lung pain may link to more serious underlying conditions and have accompanying symptoms such as coughing blood or difficulty breathing. A person can speak with a healthcare professional to get an accurate diagnosis.

How serious is pleurisy?

Pleurisy is usually easy to treat and gets better in a matter of days. However, it can lead to more serious conditions such as pneumonia.

What can feel like lung pain?

Lung pain can also feel like chest muscle pain. Look out for accompanying symptoms.

Left lung pain has many potential causes. It has links to nearby organs, such as the heart and stomach.

Anyone experiencing left lung pain needs to seek prompt medical attention to ensure that the pain is not a symptom of a serious underlying condition.

Lung Images Reveal How Breathing Distribution Differs Between The Sexes

Key differences Example EIT exams in a man (a) and a woman (b). The waveforms show the tidal variation of the EIT signal, while the images show the distribution of tidal impedance variation (the numbers represent the ventilation fraction in each quadrant). The profiles show the distribution of ventilation in the front-to-back and right-to-left directions. The boxes on the right present parameters derived from the EIT data. (Courtesy: I Frerichs et al Physiol. Meas. 10.1088/1361-6579/ad5ef7)

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a radiation-free, non-invasive imaging technique that uses measurements from surface electrodes to create a tomographic image of the body. EIT is particularly suited to assessing lung function: while conventional radiological imaging reveals lung morphology, EIT can be used to directly monitor regional lung ventilation and perfusion, and track changes due to disease or therapy.

To date, however, few EIT studies have examined the respiratory differences between men and women. To address this shortfall, a team from the University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany has performed a detailed study of large group of volunteers to investigate how biological sex affects EIT measurements. Their findings suggest that key differences exist, and that these must be considered when interpreting clinical chest EIT studies.

"The anatomical and physiological differences between women and men make it important to determine sex differences in medical research," explains first author Inéz Frerichs. "The relative lack of studies on sex-dependent differences in EIT findings is related to the fact that the method is not so old and large population studies in this field still need to be conducted. Small pilot studies do not have the power to establish possible differences reliably."

Detailed data analysis

EIT works by applying small alternating currents through pairs of electrodes attached to the skin near the organ being examined. Measuring the resulting voltage differences through all adjacent electrode pairs enables construction of a 2D tomographic map of the electrical conductivity of that body part.

In their latest study, described in Physiological Measurement, Frerichs and colleagues analysed data from 218 adults with no known lung disorders who had participated in a previous EIT study. The cohort included 120 men and 98 women, with no significant differences between the subgroups asides height and weight. The team examined EIT recordings obtained during about one minute of quiet relaxed breathing (known as tidal breathing), with the subject seated.

The EIT exams were performed using an array of 16 electrodes placed around the lower chest, with the reference electrode attached onto the belly. Data were acquired at a rate of 33 images/s – a high scan rate that allows continuous assessment of dynamic physiological processes.

For all subjects, the researchers calculated the tidal impedance variation (TIV) for each image pixel in each recorded tidal breath and created 2D plots showing the distribution of tidal volume in the chest cross-section. They then quantified this spatial distribution using a series of established EIT measures: the centre of ventilation in the ventrodorsal (front-to-back) direction (CoVvd) and the right-to-left direction (CoVrl); and the dorsal and right fractions of ventilation.

The overall results from the male and female subgroups revealed significant differences in ventilation distribution between men and women. In the right-to-left direction, women exhibited a more symmetric distribution between the right and left lung regions than men, with CoVrl located more at the right side of the chest in male subjects than in female subjects. The right fraction of ventilation was also higher in men than in women.

Differences were less pronounced in the front-to-back direction, but still significant, with CoVvd predominantly located in the dorsal image half in both sexes, but more dorsally in men.

The researchers also calculated ventilation defect scores, a parameter that further defines the heterogeneity in ventilation distribution throughout the lungs. To calculate this score, they determined the fraction of ventilation in each image quadrant, and assigned a value of 0 (for a fraction of 0.15 or higher), 1 (between 0.10 and 0.15) or 2 (lower than 0.10) to each. Summing the four quadrant values gave the overall ventilation defect score.

They observed that ventilation distribution among quadrants was less heterogeneous in women than in men, with 83.4% of women exhibiting low ventilation defect scores (0 or 1), compared with 57.5% of men. A score higher than 1 was found in 42.5% of men but only in 16.6% of women.

Differences matter

The researchers conclude that ventilation distribution detected by EIT is affected by biological sex in this large group of quietly breathing male and female subjects, with the most striking variation the significantly higher right-to-left asymmetry seen in men than in women. They attribute this finding in part to differences in chest anatomy – the left ventricle is much larger in men than in women, even after normalization to body height.

Novel X-ray technology depicts real-time airflow through the lungs Another possible cause may be breathing mechanics: differences in skeletal chest anatomy mean that women mainly perform thoracic breathing whereas men mainly exhibit abdominal breathing, which creates larger diaphragm motion. As EIT is sensitive to out-of-plane impedance changes, measurements may be affected by the movement of abdominal organs lying above and below the examination plane, particularly as this study used electrodes located at the lower part of the chest. But as the researchers did not monitor the type of breathing during the study, they cannot determine the exact role of this factor. The findings reiterate the importance of accounting for biological gender when interpreting clinical chest EIT studies. The researchers point out the need for further clinical studies in lung-healthy subjects. "We need to perform large population studies to determine the reference values of several EIT measures for both sexes and also to clarify if sex differences exist when EIT examinations are performed in different body positions and chest sections," Frerichs tells Physics World.

Breathtaking Facts About Your Lungs

You know how important your lungs are, and these facts may take your breath away. Your lungs can hold about three large soda bottles worth of air. And they're super hard-working. The average person takes about 17,000 to 23,000 breaths a day. But your lungs are up to the task. They're filled with about 600 million tiny pockets to collect incoming air, enough to cover a tennis court.

Did you know your left lung takes up a bit less space than your right one? There's a good reason why. It's to make room for your heart.

Ever wonder where all that fat goes when you lose weight? Well, one study found that you breathe some of it out. It's converted to CO2 and comes out through your lungs-- one more reason to exercise.

OK, you can exhale now. Those are just a few facts about a seriously phenomenal pair of organs. ","publisher":"WebMD Video"} ]]>

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER

You know how important your lungs are, and these facts may take your breath away. Your lungs can hold about three large soda bottles worth of air. And they're super hard-working. The average person takes about 17,000 to 23,000 breaths a day. But your lungs are up to the task. They're filled with about 600 million tiny pockets to collect incoming air, enough to cover a tennis court.

Did you know your left lung takes up a bit less space than your right one? There's a good reason why. It's to make room for your heart.

Ever wonder where all that fat goes when you lose weight? Well, one study found that you breathe some of it out. It's converted to CO2 and comes out through your lungs-- one more reason to exercise.

OK, you can exhale now. Those are just a few facts about a seriously phenomenal pair of organs.

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