[Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica]

A 70-year-old woman developed increasing dyspnoea and hoarseness without stridor. Bronchoscopy revealed the characteristic picture of a "rock-garden" with multiple whitish irregularly shaped nodules in the distal two third of the trachea, except the pars membranacea, involving the right-sided bronchial system to the origin of the lower-lobe bronchus, and the left main bronchus. The diagnosis of tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica was confirmed histologically: primary tracheobronchial amyloidosis was excluded. Tomography of the tracheobronchial tree demonstrated the findings, but a plain chest X-ray did not. The symptoms in this patient were not, however, caused by tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica but by concomitant pulmonary emphysema and acute laryngitis and were improved after symptomatic treatment of the laryngitis.