Abstract

GOMEZ LEON, Katerin; ORELLANA MENESES, Geovanis Alcides; LORENZO RUBIO, José Luis  and  CONCEPCION LOPEZ, Alexander. Epithelial thymoma as a cause of thoracic pain during an atypical exacerbation of bronchial asthma: a case report. Gac Méd Espirit [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.3, pp.331-337. ISSN 1608-8921.

Background: the evaluation of a patient with bronchial asthma exacerbation includes the search for diseases which can simulate, complicate or perpetuate that situation. The retrosternal pain is an atypical symptom in patients with asthmatic exacerbation and among the causes that can originate this symptom are mediastinal masses like thymoma. A third part of patients with thymomas might have symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases and paraneoplastic syndromes; however, although asthma has an important immunologic component in its pathophysiology, association of thymoma with asthma is poorly documented. Objective: to offer a clinical lesson through a presentation of a case with unusual association of thymoma and asthma. Case presentation: a 50 year-old female patient with asthmatic exacerbation and retrosternal thoracic pain came to emergency services. A mass in anterosuperior mediastinum was observed in computed tomographic high-resolution scan and after performing surgical exeresis and immune histochemistry studies an epithelial timoma type IIB was diagnosed. Conclusions: the presence of unusual symptoms in a patient with asthma exacerbation led to an epithelial thymoma, even when there has not been shown association between these two diseases.

Keywords : thymoma; thymic neoplasms; mediastinal tumors; bronchial asthma.

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