PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pedro, Paula Inês
AU  - Canário, Dolores
AU  - Lopes, Miguel
AU  - Oliveira, Ana
TI  - Diffuse idiopathic neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia as a rare cause of chronic cough
AID  - 10.1136/bcr-2018-226203
DP  - 2018 Nov 01
TA  - BMJ Case Reports
PG  - e226203
VI  - 11
IP  - 1
4099  - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/11/1/e226203.short
4100  - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/11/1/e226203.full
SO  - BMJ Case Reports2018 Nov 01; 11
AB  - A 39-year-old Caucasian woman, who has never smoked, presented a 16-year-duration chronic dry cough. She was prescribed by her general physician with corticosteroid and long-acting β-agonist inhalers assuming it was asthma, with mild symptomatic improvement. When cough got more persistent and associated with exertional dyspnoea and wheezing, a chest CT scan was performed, which showed multiple bilateral micronodular formations and diffuse mosaic lung pattern with air trapping. She was sent to our Respiratory Department and performed a bronchoalveolar lavage and cryobiopsy that were inconclusive. She underwent surgical lung biopsy with pathology revealing multiple foci of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia and tumourlets associated with constrictive bronchiolitis, a histological pattern suggestive of diffuse idiopathic neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia (DIPNECH). DIPNECH is a rare and preinvasive disease. Presenting symptoms can be cough and breathlessness. At the time of writing, the patient is on octreotide with symptomatic improvement.