The importance of fibrobronchoscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary diseases

Introduction

Bronchoscopy is an essential tool in the diagnosis and management of pulmonary diseases, with both diagnostic and therapeutic indications.

Case Presentation

We present the case of a 67-year-old female patient with a family history of tuberculosis (TB), as her father was diagnosed with pulmonary TB during her childhood, for which she underwent chemoprophylactic treatment at the time. She presented to our pulmonology department complaining of fever, dyspnoea on moderate exertion and marked physical asthenia, symptoms that had begun 1 week prior to presentation. Radiological investigations indicated an area of pulmonary consolidation occupying nearly the entire middle lobe, raising suspicion of a bronchopulmonary neoplasm.

The patient underwent fibrobronchoscopy, which revealed middle lobe atelectasis due to altered bronchial patency – a finding suggestive of sequelae of pulmonary TB, with no proliferative lesions identified, and the bronchial aspirate result confirmed the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cultures (10 BAAR-positive colonies).

Conclusion

In the presented case, fibrobronchoscopy was absolutely necessary and proved highly useful in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB and the exclusion of neoplastic pathology.