Tracheo‐broncho‐bronchiolar lesions in Sjögren's syndrome

Abstract

A 53-year-old woman reported having a persistent cough and bloody sputum. She did not smoke but had received a diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome. Chest CT revealed middle lobe syndrome, bronchiectasis and diffuse centrilobular nodular lesions. Bronchoscopy displayed multiple whitish polypoid lesions protruding from the cartilage rings and tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica was histologically confirmed by the presence of bony tissue in the tracheo-bronchial wall. Video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy demonstrated lymphocyte aggregation causing follicular broncho-bronchiolitis. Erythromycin therapy resulted in improvement of the follicular bronchiolitis but not the tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica.

Pulmonary and thymic lymphoid hyperplasia in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

“…Primary Sjögren's syndrome is frequently accompanied by various pulmonary diseases. [5][6][7] These facts suggest that primary Sjögren's syndrome should be intensively investigated in cases of NLH. 2 A small thymic nodule that was incidentally detected was a challenging diagnostic problem.…”