Here are some of the symptoms that patients with disease of the respiratory tract can present with:

- Nasal symptoms

• Obstruction
• Leakage - rhinitis, epistaxis (epistaxis may be one of the signs of Nasopharyngeal carcinoma - there may also be associated tinnitus or 'blocked ear')
• Snoring (eg. obstructive sleep apnoea)

- Cough

• Dry or Productive (nature of sputum is helpful eg. purulent - think infection; bloody - think neoplasm; frothy - think heart failure etc.)

- Dyspnoea (shortness of breath)

• Many different conditions can cause this, eg. infections (pneumonia - inflammatory exudates filling alveolar spaces rather than air); respiratory distress syndrome COPD; asthma; interstitial lung disease; pneumothorax; respiratory failure; heart failure etc.

- Chest wall symptoms

• Pain - eg. pneumothorax; trauma; costochondritis; advanced tumours infiltrating parietal pleura (pain receptors present)

- Systemic symptoms

• General malaise, loss of appetite and loss of weight (tuberculosis; malignancy)
• Cyanosis (symptom or clinical sign) - Type 2 respiratory failure