This category covers the physical signs and symptoms that show up with asbestos-related illness, and the plain meaning behind the medical words in your chart. Some point to the lungs, like a non-productive cough (a dry cough that brings up no mucus), restrictive lung function, and honeycombing or pleural calcification seen on imaging as the tissue scars and hardens.
Other signs reflect disease in the abdomen or elsewhere. Peritoneal mesothelioma can bring early satiety (feeling full after only a little food), omental caking, partial bowel obstruction, or a new umbilical hernia. Pericardial effusion involves fluid around the heart, and lymphadenopathy means swollen lymph nodes.
Knowing what these terms mean can help you follow what your doctors are telling you and ask better questions. None of them proves a diagnosis on its own, but together they often prompt the testing that finds one. Every term below links to a full plain-language definition.
Terms in this category
- CachexiaCachexia is a wasting condition in which a person loses weight and muscle that ordinary eating cannot restore…
- Early SatietyEarly satiety is the feeling of being full after eating only a small amount of food, or losing appetite quick…
- HoneycombingHoneycombing describes a pattern, seen on chest CT scans or in lung tissue, where destroyed and scarred lung …
- Horner SyndromeHorner syndrome is a set of signs on one side of the face: a drooping upper eyelid, a smaller pupil and less …
- LymphadenopathyLymphadenopathy means swollen or enlarged lymph nodes, the small glands that are part of the body's immune sy…
- Non-Productive CoughA non-productive cough is a dry cough that does not bring up mucus, phlegm, or sputum. It is often persistent…
- Omental CakingOmental caking is a thick, sheet-like layer of tumor that spreads across the omentum, the apron of fatty tiss…
- Partial Bowel ObstructionA partial bowel obstruction is a condition in which the intestine is narrowed or compressed but not completel…
- Pericardial EffusionPericardial effusion is the buildup of extra fluid in the pericardium, the thin two-layered sac that surround…
- Pleural CalcificationPleural calcification is the deposition of calcium within the thin membranes (the pleura) that line the lungs…
- Pleuritic Chest PainPleuritic chest pain is sharp, stabbing pain in the chest that gets worse when breathing in, coughing or snee…
- Superior Vena Cava SyndromeSuperior vena cava syndrome is a blockage of the large vein that carries blood from the head, neck and arms b…
- Umbilical HerniaAn umbilical hernia is a bulge of abdominal tissue, often fat or a loop of intestine, that pushes through a w…
Terms in this category
Browse the full Lexicon, or talk it through with a member of our litigation team, not a screener, at 833-4-ASBESTOS.