Abstract
Background: Patients with hematological malignancies (HM) often have respiratory comorbidities (RCs) such as respiratory infection, complications, and abnormal findings in radiological study in a hospital setting. Most of hematologists are familiar to treat respiratory disease with such patients; nevertheless, it is often difficult to diagnose and manage the RCs. Pulmonologists are usually requested to help about RCs from hematologists. We analyzed that the respiratory manifestations in patients with HM in our institution from 2010-2014. In addition, we also analyzed whether performing bronchoscopy had the benefit to diagnose the RCs.
Method: We investigated RCs and diagnostic rate as a result of bronchoscopy in the patients who had HM. The medical charts of these patients were retrospectively reviewed.
Result: Totally 183 patients (121 male and 62 female patients) were analyzed. The patients' primary diseases were lymphoma in 67 patients (36%) of the 183 patients, acute myeloid leukemia in 35 patients (19%), and myelodysplastic syndrome in 20 patients (11%). The patients who have chronic GVHD were 15 patients (8%) including 9 patients with bronchiolitis obliterans. The patients who had bronchoscopy were 24 patients (13%) including 14 patients (58%) were proper diagnosed. The diagnostic rate in the pneumonitis case to diagnose causative agents was low (33%) and that in the cases which were suspected to be interstitial lung disease (ILD) and tumor was relative high (73%).
Conclusion: The patients in HM often had a variety of respiratory diseases and abnormal findings in radiological study. It was effective to diagnose performing bronchoscopy, especially for the patients suspected to be ILD and tumor.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015
