| Symptoms
& History
Physical
Findings
Stop
& Think
Lab
and X-Ray
Differential
Diagnosis
The
Disease
Treatment
Conclusions
Quiz
& Evaluation |
|
What
actually happens to produce the symptoms,
illness and eventually death?
Local effects of the
tumor:
-
Obstruction of the airway
will cause pneumonia, abscess, lobar collapse, bronchiectasis, suppurative
bronchitis.
-
"Lipid pneumonia:" accumulation
of many macrophages filled with cellular lipid from dead tumor cells and
who-knows-what.
-
Pleural effusion, with
or without direct pleural involvement.
-
Hoarseness: recurrent
laryngeal nerve involvement.
-
Dysphagia: esophageal
invasion.
-
Diaphragmatic paralysis:
phrenic nerve involvement.
-
Rib destruction: chest wall
invasion.
-
Superior vena cava syndrome:
compression of SVC.
-
Horner's syndrome: ptosis,
miosis, anhidrosis (dry eye) caused by sympathetic ganglia involvement.
-
Pericarditis and possible
tamponade: pericardial involvement.
And if this isn't enough, how
about metastasis?
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