Pneomonia vs Atelectasis

[brnstclr]

I am a 45 year old male. On Friday after Thanksgiving I went to a local urgent care for a dry cough and minor chest pain that I have had for 2 plus weeks. The doctor took chest xrays and determined I had pneomonia in the lower left lobe. I was given a shot of rocephin(spelling?) and a script for Xyrithomiocen(spelling?). My cough subsided but the pain in my chest has become worse. I went to my general prectitioner and he administered an EKG wich turned out to be normal. He also took a chest xray and results were; pneomonia vs Atelectasis in the left lower lobe. He gave me another script for Xyrthomiocen. He also refered me to a cardiologist for a stress test. Should I be concerned? Should I sit back and see if my pain goes away? Should I be concerned that there is an underlying condition that would warrent a CT scan?

[brnstclr]

Thank You for your response. I went in to the ER with chest pains on Thursday. They did the full work up, ECG, blood tests and chest xray. The ECG had no significant findings. The blood test was normal other than a high level of glucose. The doctor said that she could not see any more pneomonia either. I was refered to a heart center the next day for a stress test. They found nothing abnormal. The last couple of days I have had no chest pain. I hope it was just inflammation from the coughing causing the pain.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

The constant coughing could cause muscle strain and chest pain. Sometimes the pleura, the lining of the chest cavity and lungs can get inflamed causing pain with coughing. So, the pain could be attributed to the lung disease.

But angina or cardiac pain many a times can be missed by a routine ECG. In which case, a treadmill or an exercise ECG may help. If you are a hypertensive, diabetic and overweight, you fall in the high-risk group. In addition, if you are a smoker, the risk increases many fold. So it would be advisable to have a treadmill ECG done. The pain can also be due to orthopedic related causes like cervical rib, cervical spondylosis or disc prolapse.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.