I have had shortness of breath for about 3 months and just found out that I have fluid around the lungs. Blood tests indicate high sed rate and my doctors are leaning toward rheumatoid arthritis. Still waiting for results of my CT scan. Your thoughts?
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. I can understand your concern. Breathlessness and fluid around lungs (pleural effusion) is commonly seen in congestive cardiac failure (CCF). So in my opinion, in your case, cardiac diseases should be rule out first. So ECG and 2d echo should be done first. Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause heart damage and heart failure. You are also having high sedimentation rate. This is seen in infection like tuberculosis. Pleural effusion and breathlessness also seen in tuberculosis. So you should first rule out cardiac diseases and then infectious disease like tuberculosis. Hope I have solved your query. I will be happy to help you further. Wish you good health. Thanks.