A diagnosis of acute bronchitis may be delayed or missed because some symptoms, such as cough, shortness of breath, fever, fatigue, and wheezing can attributed to other conditions as such as upper respiratory infection, influenza, or pneumonia. It is important to seek prompt medical care if you experience any symptoms of acute bronchitis and not assume they are due to a less serious condition, such as a cold. Only a thorough evaluation by a physician or licensed health care provider can determine the cause of symptoms....more about Acute Bronchitis »
For a diagnosis of Acute Bronchitis, the following list of conditions have been mentioned in sources as possible alternative diagnoses to consider during the diagnostic process for Acute Bronchitis:
The other diseases for which Acute Bronchitis is listed as a possible alternative diagnosis in their lists include:
Causes of Acute Bronchitis may include these medical conditions:
Related medical mistakes may include:
Commonly undiagnosed conditions in related areas may include:
Sinusitis is overdiagnosed: There is a tendency to give a diagnosis of sinusitis, when the condition is really a harmless complication of another infection, such as a common cold.
Whooping cough often undiagnosed: Although most children in the Western world have been immunized against whooping cough (also called "pertussis"), this protection wears off after about 15 years. Thus, any teen or adult with a persistent cough may actually have whooping cough. This is particularly dangerous for babies too young to be vaccinated, and any un-vaccinated children. Whooping cough can be fatal to an infant. The cough symptoms of whooping cough is usually productive initially, but then becomes a persistent dry cough, lasting up to 100 days. Elderly grandparents may also be a reservoir of undiagnosed whooping cough.
Chronic lung diseases hard to diagnose: Some of the chronic lung diseases are difficult to diagnose. Even the well-knowns conditions such as asthma or lung cancer often fail to be diagnosed early. Some of the chronic lung diseases with diagnostic difficulties include asthma (perhaps surprisingly), COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, mesothelioma, smoker's cough, AIDS-related respiratory conditions (see AIDS), chronic pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases. Rare possibilities include diseases like psittacosis (bird-related lung infection). See other types of chronic lung diseases.
Rare types of medical disorders and diseases in related medical areas:
The following medical news items are relevant to misdiagnosis of Acute Bronchitis:
Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.
When checking for a misdiagnosis of Acute Bronchitis or confirming a diagnosis of Acute Bronchitis, it is useful to consider what other medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative conditions relevant to diagnosis. These alternate diagnoses of Acute Bronchitis may already have been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Acute Bronchitis. For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases, see Overview of Misdiagnosis.
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