Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases  2009;67(4):364-368

doi:10.4046/trd.2009.67.4.364

A Case of Bronchiolitis Interstitial Pneumonitis.

Su Young CHI 1 ; Kyoung Ho RYU ; Dae Hun LIM ; Hong Joon SHIN ; Hee Jung BAN ; In Jae OH ; Yong Soo KWON ; Kyu Sik KIM ; Sung Chul LIM ; Young Chul KIM ; Yoo Duk CHOI ; Sang Yun SONG ; Hyun Ju SEON

Affiliations

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Keywords

Interstitial lung diseases; Bronchiolitis; Bronchiolitis obliterans

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Bronchiolitis interstitial pneumonitis (BIP), an unclassified and newly described interstitial pneumonia, has a combined feature of prominent bronchiolitis, interstitial inflammation, and fibrosis. It is distinct from bronchiolitis obliterans or bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP). BIP has a better prognosis than common cases of interstitial pneumonia. However, BIP has a poorer prognosis than BOOP. BIP's response to corticosteroids is not as successful as BOOP's response to this treatment. We encountered the case of a 31-year-old woman with BIP with an initial presentation of dyspnea and a cough that had lasted for 3 months. The patient's chest CT scan demonstrated patchy ground glass opacities and multiple ill-defined centrilobular nodules in both lungs, suggesting military tuberculosis or nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. A video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy resulted in the diagnosis of BIP. Clinical symptoms, pulmonary lesions, and pulmonary function tests were improved after oral glucocorticoid therapy.