Tracheobronchomegaly, cough and recurrent chest infection: Mounier-Kuhn syndrome

Abstract

A 49-year-old male ex-smoker was referred for recurrent chest infections requiring one course of antibiotics every winter, occurring over the last 20 years. Each episode is characterised by a productive cough with purulent sputum along with difficulty breathing, chest tightness and fatigue, but without haemoptysis. On some occasions, these symptoms were preceded by fever and rhinorrhoea. Each episode lasted ∼10 days and responded well to antibiotics. He had never been hospitalised for these infections, nor received a chest radiograph or sputum microbiology. He had been told that he developed episodes of pneumonia in his first year of life. Apart from these yearly infections, the patient was asymptomatic during the rest of the year. Mounier-Kuhn Syndrome (MKS) is a rare disease characterised by recurrent chest infections, and dilation of the trachea and main bronchi, most likely to due to atrophy of elastic fibres We thank the patient for providing consent for writing this case report with unidentifiable information.