Dr. Abhay Pada Mondal

Hello and a very good day for all the Lybrate users, I am Dr Shobhit Bansal. I am chest physician, which are also called as pulmonologist that means I take care of your respiratory tract along with the diseases related to the respiratory tract, we also look after sleep and energy disorders. So what I am dealing or talking today is the 6 Cardinal symptoms of the respiratory system, 6 Cardinal diseases, symptoms of the respiratory diseases and it is not so that these Cardinal symptoms are present single. These can overlap and one should, whenever, any of these Cardinal symptoms are present or an overlap between these Cardinal symptoms is present. Then one should always consult a pulmonologist. Since these Cardinal symptoms reflect some or other form of the disease which is taking place in your respiratory system. Since we are dealing in the respiratory system, first, I would like to tell you a little bit about our respiratory system, it is divided into two parts the upper airways and the lower airways. The upper airway or the upper part of the respiratory system starts from the tip of the nose and it goes until the larynx, whereas the lower part of the respected that starts from the larynx and it goes until the lungs. All these symptoms which are basically these 6 Cardinal symptoms of the respective track, could either be because of the abnormality in the upper airway or they could be present because of the abnormality in the lower airways. So what are these 6 Cardinal symptoms for which you should always approach a pulmonologist which is a chest physician? No. 1 is a cough, cough yaani ki khansi aana. Now we all know and we also on the television also and even big-big celebrities these days tell you about a cough and if the duration of a cough is more than 15 days or so, then you should always visit a doctor. Now, but we should always know that what all could be the causes of a cough or is this cough really serious. A cough can arise from the upper airway or it can arise from the lower airway, if it arises from the upper airway, it could be the rhinitis, it could be the sinusitis, and it could be the Bronchitis or pharyngitis or laryngitis. But if it arises from the lower Railway then mostly there is pneumonia, tuberculosis, lower respiratory tract infection or some other form of diseases including interstitial lung diseases likewise. So and the next the cough could either be with the sputum production or it could be dry. When should we go to a doctor, now if somebody is having cough and he is taking warm water to drink taking, warm gargles, taking up a little bit of cough suppressant and if a cough does not go even after 3 days then it is always better to approach a doctor, by because they could be causes which could be a little serious maybe there is some underline pneumonia or there could be some sinusitis which needs to be treated. So always keep in mind that if a cough is more than 3 days and it is having sputum production or if it is not going, despite taking mild medications one or saline gargle, warm water to drink, steam inhalation, that means the home based remedies. If a cough is not going then one should definitely approach justification, this is the first cardinal symptom. The second cardinal symptom is the sputum production, yaani ki bulgum aana, what happens is whenever person develops cough, there is some underline disease and then along with the cough, the person also develops sputum, yaani ki bulgum aata hai. Production of sputum itself is not a serious disease, but if the sputum is foul smelly, if it is excessive in production or if it is a discoloured one that was in there it is yellow colour or with a rusty tinge or with a reddish view, then one should always consult pulmonologist. What are the causes of sputum production, first in the foremost causes the pneumonia then it could either be bacterial pneumonia or it could be tubercular pneumonia. The Other causes of sputum production include malignancy chronic bronchitis and so forth. So we are done with the two another third cardinal symptom of the respiratory tract is hemotypsis, hemoptysis means coming out of blood from the respiratory tract, yaani ki khansi mein se khoon aana. Any form of blood coming out from the respiratory tract is always a serious condition and one should always consult a pulmonologist. You may get a chest x ray done, you may get some basic other investigations done to rule out few conditions which might produce blood from the sputum and what are those conditions, either it could be tuberculosis, either could be trauma to the chest or it could malignancy. But there could be other causes as well. So any amount of blood even it is 1 ml if it is coming out of the airways one should always set pulmonologist. The fourth condition which requires immediate intervention, immediate attention is shortness of breath. If the person is feeling short of breath, that means normally we breath, we do not feel as if you are breathing. But when a person is short of breath, he feels difficulty while breathing. It is a sort of laboured breathing, saans lene mein dikkat hoti hai. So there are many conditions causing difficulty in breathing, either it could be cardiac or it could be respiratory. As a pulmonary physician, we mainly work on respiratory conditions which include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary edema and sometimes pneumonia can also cause shortness of breath. Any form of shortness of breath, which occurs when a person to do any exertional activity any of the exertional activity and if you are feeling short of breath saans foolti hai thoda bhi kaam karne se, jo pehle se jayada hai then one should always approach chest physician or a pulmonologist. The fourth cardinal symptoms is production of wheez, wheez is whistling sensation from the respiratory tract message, saans mein se seetion jaisi aawaz aana jisko hum weez kehte hain. Most of the physicians and pulmonologist feel that if person wheezes it is asthma, but there could be other condition also in which a person may produce weez, which includes interstitial lung diseases and other obstructive airway diseases like foreign body or tumor in the respiratory tract. So if a person is having weez and is facing difficulty breathing, one should always approach a pulmonologist. The fifth condition which requires immediate intervention or is one of the Cardinal symptom is the chest pain, chest pain should always be taken seriously. Why a chest pain should be taken seriously because there are many conditions causing chest pain, but two types of chest pain need to be seriously taken. One which is a retrosternal that means is present in the middle of the chest and giving you are sharp stabbing feeling. Acute piercing pain hai, agar bahut joro se pain hai chati mein, so that could be of cardiology, you should always visit a cardiologist. But if it is aching pain, dard ho raha hai, side mein ho raha hai, mehsoos ho raha hai bhri-bhri pan halka-halka dard, it is a chest pain of pulmonology, one should always visit a pulmonologist. What are the conditions causing chest pain of pulmonaryology, it is pneumonia, tuberculosis, melingnancy, pural infision and there a lot of conditions causing chest pain of pulmonaryology. So we have talked about all these kind and symptoms of the respiratory tract, hope you people got aware with this and would definitely like to visit a pulmonologist. You can also consult me, I am a chest physician again and I sit in the Dipakshi hospital which is located in Sector 33 Noida. I am usually present from 6 pm till 9 P.M daily and Sundays morning 9 a.m. till 2 p.m.

Thank you for watching, hope you people got further aware with the respiratory conditions.