Is there any superiority among diagnostic methods in organizing pneumonia in terms of clinical features of the patients?

BACKGROUND: Organizing pneumonia (OP) can be idiopathic or secondary to some clinical situations. If an etiological cause is not present, this phenomenon is called cryptogenic OP. Secondary OP is associated with various diseases that are known to induce the OP.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical features of the cases with OP and compare the patients diagnosed by bronchoscopic transbronchial biopsy with patients diagnosed by surgical lung biopsy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Medical records of 41 patients diagnosed with OP between 2004 and 2014 were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS: Totally, 41 patients with OP were identified. In all, 39.02% of the cases were diagnosed by bronchoscopic methods, and 60.97% of the cases were diagnosed by surgical procedures. Although the frequency of ground glass opacities, consolidations, and micronodules was higher in the group diagnosed by bronchoscopy, mass-like lesions were more common in the cases diagnosed by surgery. Bronchoscopy, performed in 30 patients totally, had a diagnostic efficacy of 53.33%. Diagnostic value of bronchoscopy was significantly higher in cryptogenic OPs. Although diffuse radiological pattern was more common in "successful bronchoscopy" group, frequency of focal pattern was higher in "failed bronchoscopy" group. Ground glass opacity in successful bronchoscopy group and mass-like lesions in failed bronchoscopy group reached significant differences.

CONCLUSION: There were significant differences between the diagnostic procedures in terms of radiological patterns. This is the first study about the relationship between the diagnostic methods and the characteristics of OP.