Huang HR, Li PQ, Wan YX. Primary intratracheal schwannoma misdiagnosed as severe asthma in an adolescent: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(17): 4388-4394 [PMID: 34141805 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i17.4388]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Pei-Qiang Li, PhD, Research Fellow, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, No. 199 Donggang West Road, Chengguan District, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China. lipq@lzu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2021; 9(17): 4388-4394 Published online Jun 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i17.4388
Primary intratracheal schwannoma misdiagnosed as severe asthma in an adolescent: A case report
Hui-Rong Huang, Pei-Qiang Li, Yi-Xin Wan
Hui-Rong Huang, Yi-Xin Wan, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou 730030, Gansu Province, China
Pei-Qiang Li, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Author contributions: Huang HR and Wan YX were the patient’s pulmonary physicians; Huang HR was involved in data curation, provision of resources, investigation and writing of the original draft; Wan YX reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Li PQ was responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; All authors approved submission of final version for publication.
Supported byNatural Science Foundation of Gansu Province, China, No. 20JR5RA335.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Pei-Qiang Li, PhD, Research Fellow, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, No. 199 Donggang West Road, Chengguan District, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China. lipq@lzu.edu.cn
Received: February 2, 2021 Peer-review started: February 2, 2021 First decision: February 28, 2021 Revised: March 14, 2021 Accepted: April 8, 2021 Article in press: April 8, 2021 Published online: June 16, 2021 Processing time: 112 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Primary intratracheal schwannoma is an extremely rare type of benign airway tumor, especially in adolescents. The presenting symptoms are typically prolonged cough and wheezing that can be misdiagnosed as asthma in adolescent patients.
CASE
A 16-year-old adolescent girl admitted to a local hospital with symptoms of an irritating cough and wheezing was diagnosed with bronchial asthma and treated with budesonide and formoterol. Over the next year, the patient's wheezing and coughing symptoms gradually worsened and the antiasthma treatment was ineffective. One week prior to this admission, the patient developed dyspnea after catching a cold and was transferred to our hospital with a diagnosis of severe asthma. However, chest computed tomography and bronchoscopy showed a mass in the trachea. Primary intratracheal schwannoma was diagnosed by biopsy. Her symptoms were relieved by endoscopic resection by electrosurgical snaring combined with argon plasma coagulation. No relapse occurred during an 18 mo follow-up.
CONCLUSION
Primary intratracheal schwannoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis in adolescents with recurrent asthma-like attacks.
Core Tip: Primary intratracheal schwannoma is a rare benign airway tumor in adolescents. The presenting symptoms are typically prolonged cough and wheezing, and antiasthma treatment was ineffective in this patient. Chest computed tomography and bronchoscopy should be performed as soon as possible to clarify the diagnosis. Here we report a 16-year-old female patient with a primary intratracheal schwannoma misdiagnosed as severe asthma. This case report is intended to increase awareness for it and help avoid future misdiagnoses by physicians.
