REVERSIBLE AIRWAY LESIONS IN DIFFUSE PANBRONCHIOLITIS - DETECTION BY HIGH-RESOLUTION COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY

The clinical effectiveness of erythromycin for patients with diffuse p anbronchiolitis (DPB) was previously recognized. However, it remains u nknown what kind of airway lesions change with the clinical effectiven ess induced by erythromycin. We performed the present study to clarify this unknown. We devised a method for scoring findings on high-resolu tion computed tomography (HRCT) to aid in the objective evaluation of the airway lesions in patients with DPB. The 18 patients with DPB were treated with oral erythromycin, 600 mg/d. All patients were evaluated by pulmonary function tests and HRCT before and after 3 months of the rapy. Characteristic HRCT findings in patients with DPB pretherapy wer e small nodules, airway ectasia, periairway thickening, and mucus plug ging. After erythromycin therapy, there was significant reduction in s cores for the extent of small nodular opacities, the severity of peria irway thickening, and the extent of mucus plugging with a correspondin g significant improvement in results of the pulmonary function test pa rameters, The present study demonstrated reversible airway lesions inp atients with DPB in response to erythromycin therapy.