We report a case of metastatic pulmonary calcification in a patient with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis and secondary hyperparathyroidism. The diagnosis was made by using a probe-based confocal endomicroscopy which showed specific structures in the lung tissue and was proven by a transbronchial lung biopsy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of the confocal endomicroscopy findings in a patient with metastatic pulmonary calcification.
Desquamative interstitial pneumonia is a rare disease that is predominantly associated with smoking. Surgical biopsy is usually recommended for the diagnosis of this disorder. Probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) is a new method of minimally invasive in vivo microscopic image of airways and alveoli. We use this method for desquamative interstitial pneumonia in nonsmoker. The pCLE image shows thickened intra-alveolar septae and clusters of autofluorescent cells within the alveoli, which is unusual for non-smoking patients. We think this pattern can be used for differential diagnosis of desquamative interstitial pneumonia in nonsmokers.
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