Diagnosis and treatment of constrictive bronchiolitis.
Constrictive bronchiolitis is a bronchiolar airway disease that surrounds the lumen with fibrotic concentric narrowing and obliteration. The mosaic pattern seen on the expiratory high-resolution chest CT scan is diagnostic in an individual with shortness of breath, early inspiratory crackles, and irreversible airflow obstruction. Swyer-James-MacLeod syndrome is no longer considered a congenital disorder but as constrictive bronchiolitis detected in young adults who had infectious pneumonia during infancy. For lung transplant recipients, tacrolimus continues to be an important immune suppression medication, extracorporeal photopheresis may improve the decline of pulmonary function, and azithromycin may be effective in some lung transplant recipients for treatment of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome for prevention of constrictive bronchiolitis.
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
Gary R
GR
Epler