Clinical Analysis of Misdiagnosis for Children with Plastic Bronchitis

WANG Ye-jun; HUANG Yong-mei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-3429.2016.12.004

Abstract：Objective To investigate clinical features and misdiagnosed causes of children with plastic bronchitis ( PB) . Methods Clinical data of 8 children with PB, who had been misdiagnosed as having other diseases between January 2014 and January 2016, was retrospectively analyzed. Results All the patients visited doctors for fever and cough, and ini-tial diagnoses were all misdiagnosed, in whom 5 patients were misdiagnosed as having foreign body of bronchus and 3 patients as having pneumonia. Examination showed that there were 3 patients with normal white blood cells, 3 patients with elevated white blood cells and 2 patients with leukopenia;there were 4 patients with normal platelet, 3 patients with increased platelet and 1 patient with decreased platelet;there were 5 patients with normal hemoglobin and 3 patients with decreased hemoglobin. Pathogen examination showed 5 patients with positive mycoplasma pneumoniae antibody and 5 patients with bacterial infection. Chest X-ray and chest CT scan showed pneumonia signs. Bronchoscopy showed unilateral bronchial mucus obstruction, and PB was confirmed. All patients underwent removal of foreign body under fiber bronchoscope, and were discharged after cure with good prognoses. Conclusion Children with plastic bronchitis have no specificity of symptoms and imaging features, so it is easy to be misdiagnosed. Early bronchoscopy is the key to improve the diagnostic accurate rate and decrease misdiagnosis.