대한흉부영상의학회 Korean Society of Thoracic Radiology

Discussion

Diagnosis With Brief Discussion

Diagnosis

Broncholithiasis

Radiologic Findings

Brief Review

Broncholithiasis traditionally is defined as a condition in which calcified material is present within the bronchus or in an adjacent communicating cavity. More recently, the definition has been expanded to include those cases in which peribronchial calcific nodal disease distorts the tracheobronchial tree without erosion of the calcific lymph node into the bronchus. Most broncholiths arise from peribronchial lymph nodes that calcify after an inflammatory process. They may erode into an adjacent bronchus, and the associated inflammatory process may distort the bronchus.
The CT findings are: 1) a calcified lymph node that is either endobronchial or peribronchial, 2) the presence of changes due to bronchial obstruction; atelectasis, infiltrates, bronchiectasis, or air trapping, and 3) the absence of an associated soft-tissue mass.
Bronchoscopy is a relatively insensitive technique for the detection of broncholiths. The failure of bronchoscopy to identify some broncholiths is due to the node being peribronchial or to bronchial distortion obscuring an endobronchial node. An important role of bronchoscopy is to exclude an endobronchial neoplasm, which in rare cases may be calcified and simulate a broncholith.

References

Keywords

Airway, Lung, Inhalation and aspiration disease, Aspiration,