Pulmonary nodular elastosis: The intraparenchymal counterpart of pulmonary apical caps?

Abstract

We have studied six cases in which focal consolidative pulmonary opacities observed on imaging studies led to surgical resection due to the suspicion of malignancy and showed on histopathologic examination a benign process characterized by an expansile tumor-like nodular accumulation of elastotic material. The patients were five women and one man aged 46 to 67 years (mean: 61 years). All lesions were found incidentally on imaging studies done for a variety of reasons, including surveillance for metastatic carcinoma in four patients. The lesions presented as solid nodules within lung parenchyma with irregular borders and spiculated margins and measured between 0.6 and 4.6 cm in diameter. Histological examination showed dense deposits of elastic tissue without evidence of malignancy, similar to those seen in pulmonary apical caps. Clinical follow-up between 5 and 16 years (mean: 10 years) showed that all patients were alive and well without evidence of disease. Pulmonary nodular elastosis is a localized intraparenchymatous process that may be confused clinically and radiographically for a malignant neoplasm and needs to be distinguished from other nodular lesions of the lung. To the best of our knowledge, tumor-forming lesions within lung parenchyma that are predominantly or almost exclusively composed of accumulation of elastic fibers have not been previously described.