Dear Friends,
Today’s case has been provided by my good friend Victor Pineda. Radiographs belong to a 36-year-old man with cough and fever. For comparison, I am including radiographs taken nine years earlier.
Diagnosis:
1. Chronic TB changes
2. Endobronchial lesion
3. Congenital lesion
4. None of the above
What do you see? More images will be shown on Wednesday. Come back on Friday to see the answer.
Showing coronal and axial CT images. What do you think?
Click here to see the answer
Findings: Pa radiograph shows a left ill-defined opacity that blurs the upper mediastinal contour (A, arrow) and the lower cardiac border (A, red arrow). In the lateral view there is a retro-sternal line that goes from top to bottom (B, arrows). The appearance is typical of marked LUL collapse, which has not changed in the last nine years. Therefore, the most likely diagnosis is a benign condition that occludes the origin of the LUL bronchus.
Enhanced axial and coronal CTs show marked irregularity of the origin of the LUL bronchus (C, arrow) due to a large mass with coarse calcification (C-D, circles) causing distal lobar collapse. The most likely diagnosis is a benign tumor, either carcinoid or hamartoma. Given the size of the mass and the higher frequency of carcinoid, I would favor this diagnosis. It was proved by biopsy and surgery.
Final diagnosis: endobronchial carcinoid with LUL collapse
Congratulations to Ahmed Al Ani who was the first to suggest the correct diagnosis in the plain film.
Teaching point: Detecting LUL collapse in chest radiographs is important because the great majority are secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma. This patient was lucky.