Pulmonary Paragonimiasis Mimicking Tuberculosis.

Paragonimiasis is a disease which is frequently misdiagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis. In the areas where people eat crab/crayfish this disease should be considered in the differential diagnosis to avoid antituberculosis treatment for a non-tubercular condition. We are reporting a case of pulmonary paragonimiasis who had been treated for tuberculosis.

Mediastinal Adenopathy in India: Through the Eyes of Endobranchial Ultrasound.

OBJECTIVE: Aetiology of mediastinal adenopathy is likely to vary with geographic location and socioeconomic status of a population. Whilst most of adenopathy in the West could be attributed to malignant disorders, causes of the same in a developing country like India has not been extensively studied earlier due to lack of less invasive tools to sample these nodes for cytological and microbiological analysis. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) helps us reach these nodes as a minimally invasive procedure to take aspirations under real-time ultrasound guidance. The aim of the present study is to study the aetiology of mediastinal adenopathy in our population with the help of EBUS. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of all EBUS procedures done by the authors and the diagnosis thus obtained at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India between April 2010 and December 2011. RESULTS: A total of 300 patients underwent EBUS in the above period. Most common aetiology encountered in our population was a granulomatous disorder (53% cases) like tuberculosis and sarcoidosis whilst malignancy was third in order of diagnosis (17% cases). Lymph node enlargement due to anthracosis was another uncommon aetiology encountered in the study (5% cases). CONCLUSIONS: Benign granulomatous disorders like tuberculosis and sarcoidosis are the most common causes of mediastinal adenopathy in our population. EBUS is proving its worth for diagnosing mediastinal adenopathy.

Endobronchial ultrasound-guided intranodal forceps biopsy (EBUS-IFB) using 19G needle tract: First case series from India.

EBUS-TBNA is a well-established procedure for diagnosis of mediastinal lymphadenopathy replacing the need for mediastinoscopy. In certain diseases like lymphomas, the yield is reportedly 50%, sarcoidosis lymph nodes also give a yield of 80% with EBUS and at times, more material is needed for better characterization of malignancies. EBUS-intranodal forceps biopsy may be useful in these situations. In our series of seven cases, we describe a unique and safe technique of obtaining forceps biopsy from mediastinal lymph nodes under real-time endobronchial ultrasound guidance using a 19G EBUS-TBNA needle tract and thin biopsy forceps. Lymph node biopsy was able to give a conclusive diagnosis in 42% patients negative with TBNA, and was able to suggest a diagnosis in one case. No complications were seen. Thus, surgical biopsy can be avoided in nearly 50% of failed EBUS-FNAC cases.

Multidrug resistance in tubercular mediastinal adenopathy diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration.

BACKGROUND: Drug resistance in tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem. It is easy to assess for drug resistance in pulmonary samples, but the resistance pattern of TB in the mediastinal nodes has not been studied. The aim of this study is to assess the incidence of multidrug resistance in tubercular mediastinal adenopathy with the help of endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided transbronchial needle aspiration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study at a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi where 102 patients with positive mycobacterial cultures from mediastinal lymph node aspirates taken with the help of EBUS were enrolled over 24 months and their drug sensitivity to the first-line antitubercular drugs analyzed. RESULTS: There were 30 cases of drug resistance of 102 culture-positive cases. Of them, 8 patients had multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB), 16 cases had only single drug resistance, and the remaining 6 cases had more than one drug resistance pattern but not MDR. In our study, the overall incidence of MDR-TB is 7.8% (8/102), although the incidence of MDR-TB in new and re-treatment cases is 2.2% (2/89) and 46.1% (6/13), respectively. CONCLUSION: Such a high percentage of drug-resistant patients is common in tertiary care hospitals; however, similar percentages may be found in other settings as well. Therefore, all efforts should be made to take samples for Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture from the involved nodes before commencing therapy to avoid treatment failures.

Spontaneous rupture of spleen in falciparum malaria.

Spontaneous rupture of spleen is an extremely rare complication of falciparum malaria. We report a 3 1/2-year-old girl with splenic rupture who was managed successfully with splenectomy and antimalarials.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of trachea.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is an uncommon entity usually encountered among children and involving the lungs. Involvement of trachea, however, is extremely rare with only a few published case reports. The condition may present with deceptive clinical features. We report a case of tracheal IMT in a 23-year-old female who presented with clinical symptoms mimicking asthma. On further evaluation, she was detected to have a tracheal mass that was diagnosed as IMT on histopathology and was successfully treated surgically. This case report highlights the rarity and diagnostic challenge associated with the condition.

Hilar lymph node eroding into the pulmonary artery diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration.

Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is a novel minimally invasive procedure useful for the evaluation and diagnosis of mediastinal lymph nodes and the lung parenchymal lesions. A 75-year-old woman diagnosed as a case of infiltrating duct adenocarcinoma of left breast 15 years back for which she underwent a modified radical mastectomy followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The patient presented to us with haemoptysis. During EBUS, the enlarged left hilar lymph node was seen to be eroding into the left pulmonary artery leading to a filling defect in the left pulmonary artery. This filling defect was first sampled by EBUS-guided TBNA followed by sampling of left hilar lymph node. The results of cytomorphology revealed malignancy which was compatible with a metastasis from a carcinoma breast. EBUS-TBNA is a novel, safe and minimally invasive procedure with a few complications.

Ruptured pulmonary hydatid disease mimicking a lung mass: diagnosed by flexible video bronchoscopy.

Echinococcosis is frequently seen in an endemic country like India. The vast majority of infestations in humans are caused by Echinococcosis granulosus. The cyst is most commonly seen in the liver in about 74% of the cases, followed by pulmonary involvement in about 24% of cases. In our case report, a 25-year-old man presented with a mass-like lesion in the upper and middle lobe of the right lung. The patient had deteriorated clinically as the mass like opacity grew in size. Here, we have highlighted an uncommon presentation of hydatid disease of the lung diagnosed by video bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) as clinico-radiological examination along with FNAC (fine-needle aspiration cytology) of the lesion proved insufficient tools to make a diagnosis.