Address of Corresponding Author

Respiration 2005;72:95-100 (DOI: 10.1159/000083409)

  Key Words

• Malakoplakia, pulmonary
• Tuberculosis

  Abstract

Pulmonary malakoplakia is a disease that is difficult to diagnose because its symptoms vary from those mimicking bronchogenic carcinoma to pneumonitis-like tuberculous infections. Malakoplakia is an unusual inflammatory condition characterized by the accumulation of macrophages with diagnostic Michaelis-Gutmann bodies. In this study, an immunocompromised patient with a tumor mass in the upper lobe of the right lung coexisting with hilar node enlargement is presented. A thoracoscopic biopsy revealed pulmonary malakoplakia with tuberculosis of the hilar lymph node. Microbiologic cultures were positive for acid-fast positive bacilli from the hilar node specimen, and negative for any other microorganisms such as Rhodococcus equi, but positive for Escherichia coli from the lung specimen. The significance of these findings and the coincidental association between malakoplakia and tuberculosis are discussed.

Copyright © 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Leou-Chuan Pang, MD, FCAP
Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Hospital
Chang Gung University School of Medicine
Linkou Taoyuan, Taiwan (ROC)
E-Mail linkoupang@yahoo.com

  Article Information

Received: August 19, 2003
Accepted after revision: December 1, 2003
Number of Print Pages : 6
Number of Figures : 7, Number of Tables : 0, Number of References : 19