Endobronchial tuberculosis mimicking lymphoma

Abstract

Endobronchial tuberculosis may present with different clinical pictures. We presented a 55 year old patient with complaint of cough. She had palpable supraclavicular and cervical lymph nodes. Thorax CT revealed multiple conglomerated mediastinal lymph nodes. Multiple swollen mucosal nodularities were observed on bilateral endobronchial area during fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Although acidfast bacilli were negative in bronchial lavage fluid, biopsies obtained from the endobronchial nodules revealed caseous granulomatous inflammation compatible with tuberculosis. Improvement was achieved one month following antituberculosis therapy. This case report shows the importance of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the differential diagnosis of subjects present with multiple mediastinal lymphadenopathies especially in populations where incidence of tuberculosis is high.