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Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is caused by repeated exposure to environmental substances that cause inflammation in the lungs when inhaled. Substances include: bacteria, fungi or molds, proteins, or chemicals.

Signs and symptoms vary between acute, subacute, and chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis and may include flu-like illness including fever, chills, muscle or joint pain, or headaches; rales; cough; chronic bronchitis; shortness of breath; anorexia or weight loss; fatigue; fibrosis of the lungs; or clubbing of fingers or toes. Complications of chronic disease may include irreversible lung damage, permanently reduced lung function, pulmonary hypotension, or heart failure.

There are no screening methods to determine who will or will not develop hypersensitivity pneumonitis and the only prevention is to avoid common environmental sources of substances known to cause this condition.

LAM is diagnosed based on your medical history and the results from diagnostic lung function tests, imaging tests such as high-resolution CT scans, VEGF-D blood tests, or other procedures.

Heart transplant is surgery that removes a diseased heart and replaces it with a healthy heart from a deceased donor to improve your quality of life and increase your lifespan. Most heart transplants are done on patients who have end-stage heart failure, a condition in which your heart is severely damaged or weakened, and on people who have failed other treatment options.

A cardiac MRI is a painless imaging test that uses radio waves, magnets, and a computer to create detailed pictures of your heart.

Many factors such as age (being younger than two years old or 65 of older), smoking, and other medical conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), or people who have weak immune systems due to HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy (a treatment for cancer), or organ or blood and marrow stem cell transplant procedures can increase your chances of getting pneumonia and having more severe pneumonia.

Your doctor will diagnose pneumonia based on your medical history, a physical exam, and results from certain diagnostic tests such as a chest x ray, blood tests, or blood culture. Your doctor may recommend other tests—sputum test, chest computed tomography (CT) scan, pleural fluid culture, pulse oximetry, or bronchoscopy—if you're in the hospital, have serious symptoms, are older, or have other health problems.

The signs and symptoms of pneumonia can be mild or severe and may include a cough with phlegm (a slimy substance), fever, chills, and trouble breathing. Possible complications may include bacteremia, septic shock, lung abscesses, pleural effusions, empyema, pleurisy, renal failure, or respiratory failure.

Holter and event monitors are small, portable electrocardiogram devices that record your heart’s electrical activity for long periods of time while you do your normal activities. These monitors can record how fast your heart is beating, whether the rhythm of your heartbeats is steady or irregular, and the strength and timing of the electrical impulses passing through each part of your heart.