[Follicular bronchiolitis associated with pulmonary tuberculosis--report of a case]

The patient, a 39-year-old man, presented in May 1997 with an untreated persistent cough with excessive sputum of 5 years' duration. He was admitted to hospital because of the severity of the symptoms and the presence of acid-fast bacilli in his sputum. These bacilli were identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the polymerase chain reaction method. After treatment with antituberculous drugs was initiated, his symptoms and the patchy infiltrative shadows on his chest radiographs gradually resolved. However, the patient continued to expectorate a purulent sputum, showed diffuse micronodular shadows on chest radiographs, and had hypoxemia as well as mixed ventilatory and small airway disturbances on pulmonary function tests. We performed a video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy of the lung, which revealed follicular bronchiolitis.