A Rare Case of Plastic Bronchitis Following Bronchial Thermoplasty

Clinical features and risk factors of plastic bronchitis caused by refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in children: a practical nomogram prediction model

Early assessment of refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (RMPP) with plastic bronchitis (PB) allows timely removal of casts using fiberoptic bronchoscopic manipulation, which relieves airway obstruction and limit sequelae development. This study aimed to analyze clinical data for risk factors and develop a nomogram for early predictive evaluation of RMPP with PB. The clinical data of 1-14 year-old patients with RMPP were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified into a PB or non-PB group. The general characteristics, clinical symptoms, laboratory test results, imaging findings, and microscopic changes of the two groups were compared. A statistical analysis of the risk factors for developing PB was performed, and a nomogram model of risk factors was constructed. Of 120 patients with RMPP included, 68 and 52 were in the non-PB and PB groups, respectively. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, fever before bronchoscopy, extrapulmonary complications, pleural effusion, cough duration, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels were identified as risk factors. A nomogram was constructed based on the results of the multivariate analysis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value of the nomogram was 0.944 (95% confidence interval: 0.779-0.962). The Hosmer-Lemeshow test displayed good calibration of the nomogram (p = 0.376, R2 = 0.723).

CONCLUSION

The nomogram model constructed in this study based on five risk factors (persistent fever before bronchoscopy, extrapulmonary complications, pleural effusion, cough duration, and LDH levels) prior to bronchoscopy can be used for the early identification of RMPP-induced PB.

WHAT IS KNOWN

• Refractory Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (RMPP) in children has been increasingly reported and recognized, which often leads to serious complications. • Plastic bronchitis (PB) is considered to be one of the causes of RMPP, and bronchoscopic treatment should be improved as soon as possible to remove plastic sputum thrombus in bronchus.

WHAT IS NEW

• This study determined the risk factors for RMPP-induced PB. • The nomogram model constructed in this study prior to bronchoscopy can be used for the early identification of RMPP-induced PB, which facilitate the early bronchoscopic removal of casts, thereby promoting recovery and reducing cases with poor RMPP prognosis.

Recent advances in bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma: a narrative review

Background and Objective

Severe asthma refers to asthma that requires step 4 or 5 therapy recommended by Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) to prevent it from becoming uncontrolled or remaining “uncontrolled” despite this therapy. The poor treatment effect of severe asthma has been perplexing clinicians, which reduces the quality of life (QoL) of patients with asthma, and increases the mortality of such patients, so improving the therapeutic effect of severe asthma is an urgent problem to be solved in the clinic. Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a new non-drug therapy for severe asthma that is difficult to control with medications. It has been approved for clinical practice in China and the United States. The article aims at providing a new treatment option for patients with severe asthma that is poorly controlled by medications, thus improving the QoL in these patients.

Methods

An extensive literature search was performed in the PubMed database, with “bronchial thermoplasty” as the key term. The full texts of all potentially relevant articles were obtained, and relevant information was extracted.

Key Content and Findings

We find that BT is suitable for patients with severe asthma poorly controlled by medications.

Conclusions

This paper reviews the mechanism of action, procedure, safety and effectiveness, adverse effects and complications, problems, and prospects of BT, with an attempt to guide the practical application of this technique.