Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2020; 8(20): 5019-5024
Published online Oct 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i20.5019
Plastic bronchitis associated with Botrytis cinerea infection in a child: A case report
Yan-Ru Liu, Tao Ai
Yan-Ru Liu, Tao Ai, Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Liu YR was the patient’s attending physician, collected the data, and contributed to the drafting of the manuscript; Ai T was responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors issued final approval of the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for the publication of this report and any accompanying images.
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: Yan-Ru Liu, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 1617 Riyue Avenue, Chengdu 611731, Sichuan Province, China. liuyanru959@163.com
Received: July 1, 2020
Peer-review started: July 1, 2020
First decision: July 24, 2020
Revised: August 1, 2020
Accepted: August 29, 2020
Article in press: August 29, 2020
Published online: October 26, 2020
Processing time: 117 Days and 6.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Plastic bronchitis (PB) frequently occurs in children after the surgical repair of congenital cardiac defects or in the presence of inflammatory or allergic diseases of the lung. Accurate epidemiological data of this condition are still lacking.

CASE SUMMARY

A 5-year-old boy, with a clear medical history, presented to our hospital with persistent cough and pneumonia with segmental atelectasis on chest computerized tomography. He showed no significant improvement after 1 wk of amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium treatment. Bronchial casts were extracted using flexible bronchoscopy. Pathological examination of the dendritic cast confirmed the diagnosis of type I PB. Botrytis cinerea was detected by next-generation sequencing of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. After the removal of the airway obstruction and fluconazole treatment, the patient recovered and was discharged 14 d after admission without the recurrence of cough.

CONCLUSION

Botrytis cinerea pneumonia should be considered in children with PB who still have prolonged cough and atelectasis after a regular course of antibiotic therapy. Flexible bronchoscopy and etiological examination should be performed in a timely manner to determine the diagnosis, clear the airway obstruction, and target etiological treatment.

Keywords: Bronchial casts; Botrytis cinerea; Pneumonia; Children; Case report

Core Tip: Plastic bronchitis (PB) frequently occurs in children as a postoperative complication of congenital heart disease or in pulmonary inflammation or pulmonary allergic disease. Here, we report a case of pediatric PB secondary to Botrytis cinerea pneumonia. This case highlights that PB associated with Botrytis cinerea pneumonia should be considered in patients who still have prolonged cough and atelectasis after a regular course of antibiotic therapy. Flexible bronchoscopy and etiological examination should be performed in a timely manner to determine the diagnosis, clear the airway obstruction, and target etiological treatment.