[Plasma cell granuloma of the lung (inflammatory pseudotumor)]

Plasma cell granuloma of the lung is a rare, benign focal lesion of nonspecific inflammatory genesis with few symptoms and often discovered by chance during mass-radiography. Radiologically it is characterized by a usually well-circumscribed solitary round focus (70% of cases), as an infiltrate or as atelectasis if it grows endobronchially. The histological picture is polymorph with mature plasma cells, lymphocytes, vacuolized histiocytes, fibroblasts and other elements of the reticulo-endothelial system. It has been given many names, pseudotumour appearing in the older literature. In the differential diagnosis a peripheral lesion can be mistaken for benign tumour, specific granuloma or metastasis, the more central form for bronchial carcinoma. The condition was observed in six personal cases, operated on between 1967 and 1982.