COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN DIAGNOSTICS OF MOUNIER-KUHN SYNDROME

The article presents a clinical case of tracheobronchomegaly (Mounier-Kuhn syndrome). This is a congenital malformation characterized by dilatation of trachea and major bronchi due to underdevelopment of elastic and muscular elements of the tracheobronchial tree. The first manifestations appear as symptoms of recurrent bronchitis. A full-scale clinical picture in most cases appears at the age of 20-40, when infection adds, periodic recurrences become more frequent, and respiratory failure gradually builds up, which is associated with impairment of draining function of bronchi, and further leads to purulent bronchitis, bronchiectasis and pneumosclerosis. Traditional chest X-ray has limited capacities and cannot be used for diagnosis of Mounier-Kuhn syndrome, which is demonstrated in the described case. Thus, a female patient for a long time was observed for tracheobronchitis, but the conducted treatment did not give any significant improvement. Conclusion. Mounier-Kuhn syndrome is a rather rare pathology that can be diagnosed with multislice X-ray computed tomography permitting to more distinctly localize the pathological process and to determine its spread, dimensions of trachea and major bronchi in different anatomical planes, the condition of the neighboring tissues and structures and existence of complications. Also of importance is bronchoscopy that permits to identify alterations of bronchial mucosa in tracheobronchomegaly.