HRCT is now a key diagnostic tool in diffuse lung disease, but has not completely replaced histopathological diagnosis. In many cases, HRCT can provide disease-specific information so biopsy can be avoided when the clinical presentation is characteristic [1]. This is relevant for some rarer interstitial lung diseases, such as lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM; multiple uniform thin-walled cysts; di...

Argon plasma coagulation (APC) is a common and safe bronchoscopic technique used in the management of obstructing lesions and hemorrhage in the central airways. Complications of bronchoscopic APC are uncommon and include hemorrhage, perforation and fire in the airways. While bronchoscopic APC has been reported to cause systemic gas embolization and associated cardiovascular collapse, we report ...

Transbronchial lung biopsy with forceps is a standard procedure in bronchoscopic tissue sampling. Suction catheter aspiration is another technique, but it is not widely known and almost no data exist regarding its diagnostic efficiency. 272 patients were included in a prospective and randomised study between February 2007 and October 2009. All were referred for bronchoscopic evaluation of pulmo...

DESCRIPTION A 57-year-old woman attended the accident and emergency department in acute respiratory distress with a background of a longstanding retrosternal ‘ache’. She had previously presented to the accident and emergency department with a similar history, which responded to nebulised salbutamol, and had therefore previously been given a diagnosis of asthma. On this occasion, she did not res...

A review of bronchoscopic records over a 5 year period identified 41 patients who had undergone fibreoptic bronchoscopy after presenting with haemoptysis and a normal chest X-ray. Carcinoma of the bronchus was found in 4 patients (9.7%) and the procedure yielded a diagnosis in 8 of the 20 patients in whom a specific cause of their bleeding could be identified. The diagnostic yield is sufficient...

We report a 38-year-old woman with a left lung tumor presenting as obstructive pneumonia. Bronchoscopic examination revealed a polypoid tumor filling the left main bronchus. The tumor was partially resected by a snaring procedure for diagnostic purposes. Microscopic examination revealed a submucosal tumor located underneath normal bronchial epithelium. The tumor was composed of sheets of unifor...