Lungs

Looks like

Two soft, spongy cones of branching tubes ending in some 300 million air sacs, with the surface of a tennis court.

What it does

Take oxygen into the blood and let carbon dioxide out.

Keeping it well

Smoke is the dominant risk, by a distance. Low-dose CT screening in heavy smokers lowers lung-cancer deaths (about 3 per 1 000 screened over 6 years) at the cost of many false alarms. New breathlessness or coughing blood needs assessment.

Its parts

• Right lung
• Left lung
• Lung hilum & root
• Pleura & pleural cavity
• Bronchial tree
• Alveoli
• Intrapulmonary part of right pulmonary artery
• Intrapulmonary part of left pulmonary artery
• Subscapular vein
• Suprascapular vein
• Thoracodorsal vein

Related conditions

• Acute bronchitis
• Acute respiratory distress syndrome
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Altitude sickness
• Asbestosis and asbestos-related disease
• Aspergillosis
• Asthma
• Breathing pattern disorder
• Bronchiectasis
• Bronchiolitis & RSV
• Chronic venous insufficiency
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• COPD
• COVID-19
• Croup & epiglottitis
• Cystic fibrosis
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Drowning
• Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
• Endemic fungal infections (histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis)
• Hantavirus infection
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Influenza
• Kawasaki disease
• Legionnaires' disease
• Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
• Long COVID (post-viral syndrome)
• Lung abscess
• Lung cancer
• Measles
• Mesothelioma
• Metabolic syndrome
• Molar pregnancy and gestational trophoblastic disease
• Neonatal sepsis
• Neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid)
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Peripheral artery disease
• Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
• Pleural effusion
• Pleurisy
• Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)
• Pneumonia
• Pneumothorax
• Pre-eclampsia
• Pulmonary embolism
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Pulmonary oedema
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn
• Sarcoidosis
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• SIADH (inappropriate antidiuretic hormone)
• Silicosis and coal workers' pneumoconiosis
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma)
• Tuberculosis
• Varicose veins
• Vasculitis (GCA & others)
• Whooping cough