Pulmonary Airway Disease

Primary disorders affecting the pulmonary airways involve a wide spectrum of conditions some of which are the cause of significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Diseases involving the major airways (bronchi) discussed in this chapter include infectious and inflammatory conditions with particular attention to those entities that most likely come to the attention of the surgical pathologist. These include acute/chronic bronchitis, asthma, bronchiectasis, and bronchocentric granulomatosis. Diseases involving the small airways, which are defined as non-cartilaginous airways with an internal diameter <2 mm (bronchioles), can be the result of many etiologies, including infections, connective tissue diseases, bone marrow and lung transplantation, and diseases related to environmental exposures to pollutants, allergens, and drugs among others. Small airway diseases discussed in this chapter include acute/chronic bronchiolitis, cellular bronchiolitis, diffuse panbronchiolitis, respiratory bronchiolitis, constrictive bronchiolitis, and peribronchiolar metaplasia.