“Can an X-ray detect the cause of wheezing?”
My son is 2.5 years old and like other kids of his age keeps falling sick often. He is also suffering from severe wheezing for which we have to keep giving him nebulization. Can we detect the cause of this wheeze in an X-ray? Also want to know does wheezing in a child make him prone to asthma?
4 Answers
An X-ray would be the first step to determine the cause of wheezing, say to look for pneumonia or some other cause. Wheezing doesn't "lead" to asthma, but wheezing can certainly be a symptom of asthma.
Pulmonary function test is the best test.
What you’re describing to me sounds like your child may have asthma. He could also have recurrent infections, which could set up chronic inflammation. This could potentially be causing him to have wheezing as well. X-rays or CBC with differential and serum evaluation could be helpful. I hope you get this under control.
It depends on the cause of wheezing. Cases such as Lower-respiratory tract infections and croup can be easily diagnosed with chest X-ray with the appropriate clinical symptoms and signs on physical exam. If the wheezing is because of something compressing the airway from the outside (for example; an abnormal blood vessel, a big lymph node or an enlarged thyroid or thymus glands.. etc) then following an X-ray a CT might be warranted based on clinical suspicion after physical exam. Of note, sometimes chest X-ray can appear normal despite wheezing. Asthma causes wheezing but not the other way around. Wheezing is just a symptom to a number of diseases that can cause airway narrowing and in its self not a disease.
