Bronchial Anthracofibrosis and Tracheobronchomalacia.

BACKGROUND: Tracheobronchomalacia (TBM), presenting with the softening of the walls of trachea and bronchi, can cause respiration problems. Despite the importance of TBM, data on its prevalence and related factors are limited. In the current study, the prevalence and predictive factors of this illness were investigated.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients who were bronchoscopy candidates in the diagnostic department of pulmonary diseases in Afzalipour hospital in Kerman, Iran, from May 2017 to May 2018. First, all patients diagnosed with TBM were assessed based on their demographic variables, spirometry indices, anthracofibrosis and TBM severity. TBM was defined as a 50% or higher decrease in the diameter of the main tracheal and bronchial walls on expiration. These patients constituted the case group. Other patients for whom the bronchoscopy findings were not in concordance with TBM were selected through convenience sampling as control group to equal the number of patients in the case group. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.

RESULTS: In this study, 132 (9.38%, 95% CI: 8-11) of the total 1406 cases who underwent bronchoscopy had tracheomalacia. Also, 22 patients (16.66%) had bronchomalacia, at the same time. Based on the multivariable logistic test results, age ( P = 0.03, 95% CI: 1.00-1.04, OR = 1.02) and having anthracofibrosis ( P <0.0001, 95% CI: 1.26-4.68, OR = 2.43) were identified as predictive factors for tracheomalacia.

CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study suggest that the presence of anthracotic plaques can be considered as a possible predictive factor for TBM.