Abstract
Background. To diagnose endobronchial lesions in patients infected with HIV, it is necessary to distinguish opportunistic infections and opportunistic tumors. In this communication we describe an AIDS-related endobronchial malignant lymphoma presenting left obstructive atelectasis. Case. A 58-year-old man presented to our emergency service with coughing and dyspnea. Imaging showed left obstructive atelectasis and bronchoscopy revealed a white polypoid lesion in the left main bronchus. A transbronchial biopsy procedure yielded a diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The lesion was positive for EBNA2 and LMP1, indicating the involvement of EB virus (EBV). Tumor growth was rapid, and the tissue was extensively necrotized. The patient was HIV antibody-positive and had a very low CD4 count of 44/μl. The disease was classified as Stage I, and local radiotherapy was instituted at a specialist AIDS center. Conclusions. An extremely rare case of AIDS-related endobronchial malignant lymphoma was reported.
