Ichikawa Y, Tokunaga N, Kinoshita M, Rikimaru T, Kaji M
First Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University Medical School, Fukuoka, Japan.
Chest. 1991 Mar;99(3):759-61. doi: 10.1378/chest.99.3.759.
We report a rare case of a patient in whom severe subcutaneous and mediastinal emphysema occurred in association with summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis and in whom overdistention or disruption of alveoli with obliteration of the respiratory bronchioles was revealed on open lung biopsy. This case suggests that obstructive bronchiolitis with hypersensitivity pneumonitis is an etiologic factor of mediastinal emphysema.
