title: Chronic bronchiolitis in ankylosing spondylitis.
abstract: The pleuro-pulmonary signs of ankylosing spondylitis are generally asymptomatic, typically represented by biapical lung fibrosis. To our knowledge, the severe bronchiolitis which is sometimes observed in other spondyloarthropathies has not been described in ankylosing spondylitis. We report two cases of severe chronic bronchiolitis in ankylosing spondylitis patients. Their clinical and radiological presentation were similar, characterized by progressive deterioration of stage III-IV dyspnea, non-reversible obstructive ventilatory defect, and CT scan showing air trapping with mosaic attenuation and ground-glass opacity in expiration. Lung biopsies confirmed the diagnosis of severe follicular bronchiolitis in one patient and constrictive bronchiolitis is suspected in the other. Only the patient with follicular bronchiolitis responded positively to treatment with low doses of macrolides.
authors.affiliation: CHRU Tours, Hôpital Bretonneau, Service de Pneumologie et Explorations Fonctionnelles Respiratoires; Inserm U 1100, Faculté de Médecine, Université François Rabelais, Tours, France. s.marchandadam@univ-tours.fr.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marquette
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diot
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Muret
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blechet
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Favelle
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sonneville
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mammou
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Diot
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marchand-Adam
mesh_terms: D001988:Bronchiolitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D001989:Bronchiolitis Obliterans; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed