Clinical analysis of 36 cases of bronchial anthracofibrosis examined with electronic bronchoscope

Abstract

Objective To analyze the clinical, imaging, bronchoscopic, pathological and etiological characteristics of bronchial anthracofibrosis under electronic bronchoscopy. Methods Thirty-six patients with bronchial anthracofibrosis hospitalized in Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Yiyang Central Hospital from March 2016 to June 2018 were selected and their general condition, clinical manifestations, chest computed tomography, pathological features under bronchoscope, pathological and etiological results were analyzed. Results The age of patients with bronchial anthracofibrosis ranged from 46 to 76 years, with an average of (64±9) years old.Among them, there were 17 males and 19 females.The main clinical manifestations were cough and shortness of breath.The main manifestations of chest computed tomography were pulmonary exudation, bronchial stenosis, pulmonary nodules, atelectasis, and pleural thickening or pleural effusion, mediastinal lymph node enlargement or calcification.Under electronic bronchoscope, bronchial anthracofibrosis was mainly located in bilateral upper lobe and right middle lobe bronchi.The morphological features were mainly simple, infiltrative and simple combined with infiltrative.Biopsy under electronic bronchoscope was performed in 29 cases and no biopsy was performed in seven cases.Pathological results were that there were seven cases of malignant tumors, nine cases of tuberculosis and 13 cases of chronic mucositis.Pathogenic results were that bronchoscopic brush smears were positive for acid-fast bacilli in 15 cases, three cases showed gram-positive cocci and one case showed gram-negative bacilli. Conclusions Bronchial anthracofibrosis is not a single disease, but a clinical syndrome.It has certain imaging, bronchoscopy, pathological and etiological characteristics, and is closely related to tuberculosis, bronchial tuberculosis, malignant tumors and chronic inflammation. Key words: Bronchoscope; Bronchial anthracofibrosis; Bronchial anthracosis