hi doctor, my husband was diagnosed with tb, he also had some fluid on his right lung before. Now he has been completed his 6 months tb medication. Sometime he feel short of breath after doing some exercise, we did check up to our GP, also did chest x-ray. GP said he completely recover, but left very minimal fluid. My question is what happen with my husband? if he fully recover then why the fluid not completely gone, also sometime he feel short of breath. Thank you in advance for your answer.regards
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. In my opinion you should first consult pulmonologist and get done ultrasound examination of chest. After treatment in pleural effusion, healing occurs by pleural thickening.  So on chest x-ray both thickening and effusion look similar. So ultrasound is needed to rule out effusion. In my opinion your husband has pleural thickening, not effusion. TB infection can cause morphological changes in lung and makes it more prone to bronchitis. So breathlessness in your husbands' case can be due to bronchitis.  So we need to rule out this by PFT (PULMONARY Function Test). So no need to worry about effusion, it will be thickening only. And get done PFT too.