Plastic bronchitis, also known as fibrinous bronchitis or pseudomembranous bronchitis, denotes the presence of rough bronchial casts that may be coughed up of or found at bronchoscopy or in tissue biopsy materials. The most common symptoms on presentation are, progressive dyspnea and nonproductive persistent cough. The characteristic histopathological lesion is proliferation of fibrinous tissue within terminal bronchioles. The lesions nearly completely resolve with ste-roid therapy. Radiological improvement is seen earlier than the functional. Therapy for plastic bronchitis needs specific measures to treat underlying pulmonary condition as well as supports designed to remove or facilitate the expectoration of bronchial casts.
Our patient is a 62 year old woman, complained of cough and progressive dyspnea, that did not respond to antibiotherapy. After our clinical and pathological examinations, we diagnosed her as plastic bronchitis. Our patient’s symptoms were responsive to steroid or intrabronchial instillation of acetylcysteine therapy and were relieved in a short time, uneventfully.
Keywords: Bronchitis; Dyspnoea; Fibrinous Casts
