Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 16, 2024; 12(2): 354-360
Published online Jan 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i2.354
Primary biliary cholangitis presenting with granulomatous lung disease misdiagnosed as lung cancer: A case report
Shan-Li Feng, Jun-Yao Li, Chun-Ling Dong
Shan-Li Feng, Jun-Yao Li, Chun-Ling Dong, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130041, Jilin Province, China
Author contributions: Feng SL wrote the original draft; Feng SL and Dong CL collected and analyzed the clinical data; Dong CL and Li JY reviewed and edited the manuscript; Dong CL contributed to conceptualization and supervision; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The Special Health Project of the Department of Finance of Jilin Province, China, No. 2020SCZT023 and No. 3D5177713429.
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 conflict of interest to disclose.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chun-Ling Dong, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, No. 218 Ziqiang Street, Nanguan District, Changchun 130041, Jilin Province, China. cldong@jlu.edu.cn
Received: September 19, 2023
Peer-review started: September 19, 2023
First decision: November 22, 2023
Revised: December 6, 2023
Accepted: December 25, 2023
Article in press: December 25, 2023
Published online: January 16, 2024
Processing time: 113 Days and 14.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) can present as granulomatous lung disease when the lungs are involved. A patient with pulmonary granulomatous disease secondary to PBC was misdiagnosed with lung cancer by positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), leading to unnecessary lobectomy. The symptoms and imaging of pulmonary granulomatous disease secondary to PBC are nonspecific. It also appears as high fluorodeoxyglucose uptake on PET/CT scan. Diagnosis should not rely solely on PET/CT findings but should consider clinical data, lung aspiration biopsy, and immune-related disease indexes to avoid unnecessary physical and financial burden.