Wegener′s granulomatosis presenting as spontaneous pneumothorax in young adult

Abstract

Pulmonary involvement in Wegener′s granulomatosis (WG) usually starts with nonspecific symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and pleuritis. Spontaneous pneumothorax as initial presentation is extremely rare. Although its real incidence is unknown, according to different classic series, it ranges between 3 and 5% of the cases. In this case, a 28-year-old male presented with complaints of epistaxis and breathlessness, which was diagnosed as WG with pneumothorax on the basis of chest X-ray and computed tomography (CT) chest and pathological confirmation by high level of serum cytoplasmic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA).

Keywords

• Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody
• spontaneous pneumothorax
• wegener′s granulomatosis
• young adult