Use of endobronchial ultrasonography in the diagnosis of a pulmonary artery aneurysm

Abstract

We present the case of an 84-year-old man with nonmassive hemoptysis and an obstructing endobronchial mass who was referred for rigid bronchoscopy and biopsy of the lesion. We illustrate how the pulsatile movement of his endobronchial lesion could be differentiated by convex probe endobronchial ultrasound bronchoscopy to be a vascular lesion rather than an endobronchial mass or tumor. Although convex probe endobronchial ultrasonography has many mediastinal applications, it has yet to be used to characterize endobronchial masses. We describe the first case of using convex probe endobronchial ultrasonography in the diagnosis of a left upper lobe pulmonary artery aneurysm presenting as an endobronchial mass.