ABSTRACT
Respiratory medicine is the speciality concerning diseases of the chest, primarily the lung (excluding diseases of the heart and major blood vessels within the chest). The common problems referred to a respiratory physician include breathlessness, cough with or without the production of sputum, coughing up of blood (haemoptysis), non-cardiac chest pain, abnormalities seen on GP chest X-rays, and wheeze. The types of diagnostic categories therefore seen by a respiratory physician are most commonly asthma, acute bronchitis, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, lung cancer, pneumonia, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, lung fibrosis, interstitial lung diseases and diseases of the pleura including pleural effusions (fluid), pneumothorax (air in the pleural cavity) and pleural tumours (mesothelioma) and industrial lung diseases. On the basis of claim records, respiratory medicine is rated as a low risk litigation area by the medical defence bodies, although respiratory diseases are extremely common and one of the most common reasons for hospital admission and hospital referral.
