2017 Volume 39 Issue 5 Pages 398-402
Background. It is emphasized that bronchoscopy is not routinely performed for airway evaluation in relapsing polychondritis because the procedure has been reported to exacerbate airway inflammation. Recently, it is considered that virtual bronchoscopy (VB) imaging can be a useful modality for noninvasive observation. We could compare flexible bronchoscopy findings with VB images, and assess the similarity between both modalities. Case. A 47-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with prolonged cough and arthralgia. The chest CT revealed thickening of the tracheal wall. Flexible bronchoscopy showed erythema and swelling of the tracheal and bronchial walls. We started oral prednisolone therapy, resulted in immediate improvement of her symptoms, so we diagnosed relapsing polychondritis. Afterward she had exacerbation of tracheal stenosis, and we placed an airway stent. Thus we could compare flexible bronchoscopy with VB findings at the same time, and the image of VB showed good concordance with that of flexible bronchoscopy. Conclusion. VB imaging can be a useful modality for evaluating the airway morphology of relapsing polychondritis noninvasively.
