Bronchial carcinoid misdiagnosed as COVID pneumonia: a case report

Bronchial carcinoid tumours are rare, slow-growing, malignant, Low-grade neuroendocrine tumours that arise from Enterochromaffin (Kulchitsky) cells and are usually detected typically as indolent and solitary tumours. Approximately 2% of all lung tumours are bronchial carcinoid tumours.

The authors report a case of 55-years-old man who presented with a history of cough for 1 month and was initially diagnosed with a case of COVID-19. Then he was treated as a case of pneumonia as seen on high-resolution computed tomography. Later, contrast-enhanced computed tomography and bronchoscopy-guided biopsy were done which revealed a right lower lobe neuroendocrine tumour (carcinoid), which was successfully resected.

The majority of typical carcinoids are located in the central airways leading to bronchial obstruction with recurrent pneumonia, chest pain, and wheezing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lung cancer patients were at higher risk of being affected by COVID-19. This study emphasizes that early identification and differential diagnosis are extremely difficult in the absence of comprehensive study and workup as the clinical and imaging findings of COVID-19 may resemble lung cancer. Although hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes are the most common metastatic sites for typical carcinoids, most lymphadenopathies are caused by a reactive inflammatory reaction.

Bronchial carcinoids are uncommon, malignant neuroendocrine tumours for which the only curative management is complete surgical resection. With full resection, the result of typical carcinoids with lymph node metastases is favourable.