Bronchoscopic Analysis of Airway Bleeding Patients with Almost Normal Chest Roentgenograms

Abstract

Fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed in 73 patients (30 men and 43 women) with airway bleeding and almost normal chest roentgenograms. The diagnosis of the causative factor was acute bronchitis (40%), chronic bronchitis (36%), bronchiectasis (11%), some other diseases as old tuberculosis, pneumoconiosis, paragonimiasis, sarcoidosis, et al. One case of lung cancer with no other symptoms was detected, which indicated the importance of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in airway bleeding cases. Airway inflammatory disease (acute bronchitis and chronic bronchitis) was the major cause, especially among women. The location of bleeding was found out in 32% of all cases and 13% showed normal bronchoscopic findings. The rest revealed inflammatory changes of bronchial mucosa redness, edema, and capillary dilatation, atrophic change, or localized bronchial secretion, the last of which was highly suggestive of bronchiectasis. In male cases no specific tendency was seen in terms of bleeding location, but in female cases 77% of the bleeding was detected in the left airway, which may be indicative of mucosal weakness of the left airway in women.