A dreaded form of small airways disease in RA is irreversible, constrictive bronchiolitis
, which is often diagnosed before a biopsy is performed because of characteristic findings on pulmonary function tests and evidence of bronchiolar disease, demonstrable by the presence of a mosaic pattern (mosaic perfusion) on high-resolution computed tomography.
Then the physician is in the challenging position of having to decide whether to send someone for a surgical lung biopsy to evaluate the possibility of constrictive bronchiolitis because you can't make that diagnosis without a biopsy," Dr.
Miller published the largest case series to date in which open lung biopsy was used to diagnose 38 cases of constrictive bronchiolitis and 11 other lung ailments in 49 Fort Campbell soldiers with unexplained exertional dyspnea and normal pulmonary-function and cardiopulmonary-exercise testing (N.
Unfortunately, veterans returning from the current wars are unable to obtain service connection for such health problems as constrictive bronchiolitis
, a rare disease caused by exposure to an environmental toxin, as well as cancer, heart disease and most respiratory illnesses" National Service Director Garry T.
Some soldiers serving in the Middle East who develop difficulty breathing--but whose chest X-rays show nothing out of the ordinary--have constrictive bronchiolitis, a kind of lung damage virtually unknown in young adults.
Constrictive bronchiolitis, in which tiny airways become narrowed, has rendered some soldiers unfit for active duty.
is a lung disease characterized by fixed airways obstruction and fibrosis of the distal airways or bronchioles, with extrinsic narrowing or obliteration of the bronchiolar lumen.
Blair was diagnosed with a serious lung ailment called Constrictive Bronchiolitis
- a classic sign of toxic damage, according to Pulmonologist Robert Miller of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Constrictive bronchiolitis should be considered in all returning veterans who report exercise limitations due to dyspnea, according to the findings of a descriptive case series involving 49 patients.
Lung biopsies revealed diffuse constrictive bronchiolitis in 38 of 49 previously healthy soldiers who developed unexplained exertional dyspnea and diminished exercise tolerance after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Dr.
Primary bronchiolitides are additionally challenging as the histologic findings are often extremely subtle, particularly those of constrictive bronchiolitis
Bronchiolarization may occur in the setting of healed bronchiolitis or interstitial fibrosis and may also be found in association with chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, constrictive bronchiolitis
, or bronchiectasis.