2016 Volume 38 Issue 6 Pages 500-504
Background. Primary tracheobronchial amyloidosis is a rare disease. Because its symptoms are not specific, this disease is rarely suspected and difficult to diagnose in clinical practice. Case. An 85-year-old Japanese woman had complained of hoarseness 2 years prior to her presentation with pneumonia, at which time bronchial wall thickening was observed on chest computed tomography. Bronchoscopy showed circumferential wall thickening extending from her larynx to the trachea. Tracheal biopsies revealed amyloid light chain deposits under the tracheal epithelium. She had no signs of systemic amyloidosis and no cause of secondary amyloidosis. We therefore diagnosed her illness as primary tracheobronchial amyloidosis. Discussion. In a recent study, 34-35% of patients with tracheobronchial amyloidosis had complained of hoarseness. This accounted for the accompanying laryngeal amyloidosis in our patient. Hoarseness is a relatively rare symptom in respiratory diseases; therefore we must differentiate tracheobronchial amyloidosis when we see a patient with respiratory symptoms and hoarseness of unknown origin.
