Hello doctor, My mother was admitted to hospital nine months back with a catheter-related UTI. She was also hypothermic. Tests revealed that the UTI had become urinary sepsis. She was given IV antibiotics for this. Her legs were swollen with edema, as was her lower abdomen, but her chest was clear. She had three chest X-rays taken while she was in the hospital. I have attached these radiographs for your analysis. She developed sudden hypoxemia (SpO2 dropped to 70) and was given supplemental oxygen to saturate her blood. A stethoscope detected bilateral crepitations in her lungs. She had no cough, no tachycardia and no fever (she remained hypothermic throughout her stay in the hospital). Her leg edema remained during her time in hospital. The comments that accompanied her radiographs consisted of just a few ambiguous words. They included question marks and failed to make definitive diagnoses. This is why I am sending the radiographs to you. I need to know specifically what was happening in her lungs.
Hi. The chest X-ray done shows mildly increased bilateral lung markings and a mildly enlarged cardiac shadow (attachment removed to protect patient identity). There are no serious concerns about this X-ray. In the chest X-ray done a few days later, there is a generalised haziness in the left lung in addition to the prominent lung markings and the mildly enlarged cardiac shadow. Depending on the clinical signs, the possibilities can be a unilateral pneumonia or pulmonary edema. However, in literature, pulmonary edema is usually unilateral on the right side and without cardiac enlargement. In the chest X-ray done four days later, there are randomly distributed peri hilar opacities in the bilateral lungs and on seeing carefully there are air bronchograms and this is likely a picture of disseminated pneumonia. The other possibility being a diffuse pulmonary edema.