Cases reported • Bronchiolitis

1/14. Respiratory bronchiolitis associated with severe dyspnea, exertional hypoxemia, and clubbing.

Respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease (RBILD) is a distinct clinicopathologic disease described almost exclusively in cigarette smokers.(1) (2) The disease usually presents with mild symptoms and is associated with a good prognosis. (2) Severe lung dysfunction has not been reported with RBILD, which is often confused clinically and radiographically with desquamative interstitial lung disease or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Two patients with RBILD who developed severe dyspnea, hypoxemia, and clubbing are described. Initially, IPF was diagnosed in both patients. The severity of symptoms was such that the first patient's room air saturation was 85% and the second patient had severe impairment of lung function, with FEV(1) of 39% and FVC of 40%. Advanced lung disease required supplemental home oxygen therapy in the first patient and referral for lung transplant evaluation in the second patient. After a detailed review of histology revealed a diagnosis of RBILD, both patients were encouraged to stop smoking; smoking cessation led to considerable improvement in symptoms and lung function tests. We conclude that advanced lung dysfunction occurs in some patients with RBILD and should not dissuade that diagnosis.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 1
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

2/14. Respiratory bronchiolitis associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD) presenting with haemoptysis.

Respiratory bronchiolitis associated interstitial lung disease is an uncommon condition in current or ex-smokers. The presentation is non-specific, but haemoptysis is uncommonly reported in this condition. We report the case of a 25-year-old woman who presented with significant haemoptysis, dyspnoea, reduced transfer factor and normal clinical examination. In addition, a medline literature search was performed to review the clinical features and prognosis of this disease. Other causes of haemoptysis were excluded with extensive investigation. The diagnosis was made on thoracoscopic lung biopsy. The patient had significant postoperative complications of prolonged air leak and hydropneumothorax requiring further surgery and prolonged hospital stay. Advice regarding smoking cessation was given. Her pulmonary physiology remains abnormal on follow up but symptoms have improved. Respiratory bronchiolitis-ILD may present with normal examination and radiology. Haemoptysis in this case may have been associated with the underlying disease but could have been incidental. diagnosis, in general, requires lung biopsy. As in this patient, lung function does not appear to improve significantly on follow up.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 2.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

3/14. A clinicopathologic study on three cases of constrictive bronchiolitis.

We describe the characteristic clinical and pathologic findings of three cases of constrictive bronchiolitis. All three patients were middle-aged women with chronic respiratory illness characterized by chronic cough, dyspnea, mild to severe obstructive pulmonary dysfunction, relatively normal chest radiographs with occasional peribronchial infiltration, and lack of response to bronchodilators or prednisolone. The patients also had medical diseases such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and hyperprolactinemia in case 1 and 3, respectively. None of the patients smoked cigarettes and had clinical evidence of recent viral lower respiratory tract infection. Histologic study by open lung biopsy revealed a spectrum of changes ranging from active cellular bronchiolitis to obliterative peribronchiolar fibrosis. The intervening interstitial and alveolar areas showed no remarkable lesion. Immunohistochemically, the bronchiolar or peribronchiolar inflammatory infiltrates mainly comprised of mixed T- and b-lymphocytes. It may be possible that the active form of constrictive bronchiolitis is initiated by attendant lymphocytic inflammation of the airways, which is followed by fibrous obliteration of bronchioles.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 0.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

4/14. Diffuse panbronchiolitis: an underdiagnosed disease? Study of 4 cases in brazil.

BACKGROUND: Diffuse panbronchiolitis is a clinical pathologic condition characterized by chronic inflammation of respiratory bronchioles, with clinical features that position it as a differential diagnosis among the sinopulmonary syndromes. methods AND RESULTS: We present 4 cases (1 Black, 2 Japanese descendants, and 1 Japanese), living in brazil, in which the diagnosis was made by the clinical and radiological features and confirmed by transbronchial biopsy. The clinical findings included chronic sinusitis, productive cough, rhonchi, and wheezes. The pulmonary function tests showed an obstructive pattern. High resolution computerized tomography showed a diffuse nodular pattern, airway ectasia, and airway wall thickening. The biopsy showed interstitial accumulation of foam cells and lymphoid cells in the walls of respiratory bronchioles: 2 of our cases had bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue hyperplasia. We searched for the HLA Bw54 in all of our patients, but only 1 was positive. A low dose macrolide treatment was introduced, resulting in with clinical and functional improvement. A score that rated the extent of nodules, airway ectasia, mucus plugging, and airway wall thickening was applied on pre- and post-treatment High resolution computerized tomography results, revealing an improvement in tomographic pattern related to that observed in the pulmonary function tests. CONCLUSION: We conclude that diffuse panbronchiolitis is a systemic disease that is not exclusive to the Asian population, whose clinical and radiological features should be better known by occidental pulmonary physicians.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 0.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

5/14. Alarming hypoxemia during one-lung ventilation in a patient with respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease.

PURPOSE: To report a patient with respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD) who developed severe hypoxemia during one-lung ventilation (OLV). CLINICAL FEATURES: A 27-yr-old female, ex-smoker presented with productive cough and dyspnea of 18-month duration. The chest x-ray revealed diffuse abnormalities involving both lungs consisting of interstitial emphysema with irregular shadowing. Preoperative PaO(2) was 88 mmHg and pulmonary function tests showed moderate obstructive disease. The patient underwent right open lung biopsy. After induction of anesthesia, a left double lumen tube was inserted and its position verified with auscultation and fibreoptic bronchoscopy. Upon initiation of OLV, the patient developed severe hypoxemia and the PaO(2) dropped from 500 mmHg during two-lung ventilation (TLV) to 50 mmHg. Hypoxemia was readily corrected by resuming TLV. CONCLUSION: The severe hypoxemia during OLV in this patient with RB-ILD may be attributed to impaired hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. Other causes were not excluded. Caution is warranted when initiating OLV in these patients.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 3
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

6/14. Respiratory bronchiolitis associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD): a case of an acute presentation.

Respiratory bronchiolitis associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD) is a recently described clinicopathological entity that occurs almost exclusively in current heavy cigarette smokers. Few cases have been reported in the literature and no studies have been carried out on the effect of treatment, which currently consists of smoking cessation with or without corticosteroids. We report the first case of an acute presentation of histologically proven RB-ILD in a young cigarette smoker whose diagnosis and management proved to be difficult. smoking cessation alone was found to be inadequate so management was combined with corticosteroid therapy.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 2.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

7/14. Respiratory bronchiolitis associated with interstitial lung disease.

Respiratory bronchiolitis associated with interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD), first described by Niewoehner et al in an autopsy study of cigarette smokers who died from non pulmonary causes in 1974, is a rare entity that should be distinguished from the other interstitial lung diseases and in particular from desquamative interstitial pneumonia, although the two conditions share a similar histopathological pattern. RB-ILD is clearly connected with tobacco smoking and has been inserted in the "smoking related interstitial lung diseases" together with DIP and Cell histiocytosis of Langerhans; it may also be associated with occupational exposure to machine fumes. The following is a case report of a patient with both smoking and occupational exposure.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 4
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

8/14. Diffuse bronchiolar disease due to chronic occult aspiration.

OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical, radiological, and histopathologic features of diffuse bronchiolar disease due to chronic occult aspiration. patients AND methods: We identified 4 patients encountered from July 2001 to January 2004 who had persistent respiratory symptoms and lung Infiltrates and who were eventually diagnosed by surgical lung biopsy as having diffuse bronchiolar disease due to chronic occult aspiration. medical records, radiological studies, and histopathologic specimens were reviewed to assess their clinicoradiologic presentation and diagnostic features. RESULTS: The mean age of these 4 patients was 50 years (age range, 41-59 years), and 2 were women. All presented with persistent dyspnea, cough, and lung infiltrates. Three had a history of gastroesophageal reflux, but only 1 had active symptoms. Chest radiography showed interstitial infiltrates, whereas the predominant finding on computed tomography was numerous centrilobular nodules in all patients. Bronchoscopic lung biopsies had been performed in all patients, and the results were nondiagnostic. Surgical lung biopsy specimens revealed diagnostic features that consisted of bronchiolocentric organizing pneumonia with giant cells that contained material consistent with food in all 4 patients. CONCLUSION: Diffuse bronchiolar disease likely represents an underrecognized form of aspiration-related lung disease and may occur in relatively young Individuals without symptoms suggestive of recurrent aspiration. Radiological features associated with this disorder are distinctively different from those seen in aspiration pneumonia.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 0.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

9/14. Bronchiolo-alveolitis with pulmonary basal lamina injury in a rheumatoid patient during gold treatment.

A 47-year-old housewife presented with nonproductive cough, progressive breathlessness and intermittent fever during gold treatment, originally prescribed for seropositive polyarthritis, which later fulfilled the criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). An open lung biopsy showed abundant interstitial edema with mononuclear inflammatory cells and some eosinophils, and slight bronchiolitis. The picture was nonspecific but suggestive of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Electron microscopy revealed splitting and local disappearance of the basal laminae of the alveolar capillaries, venules and alveolar epithelium. This injury was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining for type IV collagen and laminin, the major components of basal laminae. In most macrophages there was lysosomal electron dense granular material, i.e. aurosomes, which gave the spectrum of gold in electron microprobe analysis. After the gold treatment was stopped the pulmonary symptoms gradually decreased during several months and no permanent lung disease remained. Whereas the pulmonary manifestation could have been due to her underlying disease we discuss in this study the possibility of its being gold induced.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 0.5
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)

10/14. Lymphocytic bronchiolitis associated with hiv infection.

patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) frequently develop interstitial lung disease. This is due most commonly to opportunistic infections, but malignancy and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis have also been associated with the syndrome. In contrast, there has been little reported about airways disease in patients with hiv infection. We describe a patient with aids-related complex who presented with symptoms and radiographic evidence of micronodular interstitial lung disease. Transbronchial biopsy revealed a lymphocytic bronchiolitis but no evidence of interstitial lung disease and a marked T-suppressor lymphocytosis was found on analysis of the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimen. Routine fungal, viral and bacterial cultures did not yield an etiologic agent. This case raises the possibility that lymphocytic bronchiolitis may represent another pulmonary manifestation of hiv infection.

- - - - - - - - - -

ranking = 2
keywords = interstitial
(Clic here for more details about this article)