Mesothelioma : Test and diagnosis

Patients who are suspected of mesothelioma are first advised to take CT scan and a chest x-ray. Mesothelioma is a very rare disease. Mesothelioma doesn’t have any particular signs or symptoms. So there are many possibilities of misdiagnosing mesothelioma

Biopsy

Biopsy is a procedure in which a particular portion of tissue is taken for experimental examination. There are many different biopsy procedures. They are
• Fine needle aspiration: In this biopsy procedure a small portion of tissue is taken from the chest by means of a needle
• Thoracoscopy : In this procedure, few incisions are made between the patients ribs. Some instruments are used to cut the tissues and a camera is used by doctors to view inside of the chest cavity
• Thoracotomy: In this procedure the chest is opened between the ribs and a small portion of tissue is taken for test
• Laparoscopy: This is same as thoracotomy but the difference is that this procedure is done in abdomen


Staging :

The stages of mesothelioma are,
• In stage 1 mesothelioma is considered as localized , it is limited to a portion of lining
• In stage 2 mesothelioma spreads beyond the lining of chest
• In stage 3 mesothelioma spreads to other parts
• In stage 3 mesothelioma is severe and spreads all over