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What are the take always from recently getting a bronchoscopy done to
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Feb 21 10:21am | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
When patients undergo bronchoscopy, is the pulmonologist actually able to see visible signs of mac damage in lungs? Are there any classical visible mac cues one should expect to see with bronchoscopy? Other than to get a direct sputum sample from lungs, does bronchoscopy provide any other diagnostic information regarding mac?
Replies to "When patients undergo bronchoscopy, is the pulmonologist actually able to see visible signs of mac damage..."
The main goal of bronchoscopy is to collect samples from the lung -- tissue and/or mucus/phlegm; it's a diagnostic test. If a pulmonologist has done a lot of bronchoscopies then they have something to compare. For example, early on in this disease I had a bronchoscopy and afterwards pulmonary commented that he was surprised how much gunk was in my lungs. Not exactly a medical comment but since he had done many procedures he could visually compare mine to others. Plus, he gave me a few photos of the inside of my lungs as a souvenir!
Some pulmonologists send their bronchoscopy patients to the Interventional Pulmonology team at hospitals. Personally, I'd rather my own pulmonologist do the bronchoscopy but only if they've done thousands!
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A bronchoscopy is an extremely useful tool to see MAC progression as to whether it has disseminated to other lobes of the lung. A sputum can’t do that. A CT scan can do similar but isn’t as definitive as getting an actual lung sample through bronchoscopy. Irene 5