C.P. is a 71-year-old married farmer with a past medical history of hernia surgery in 1986 and prostate

Question

surgery in 2005 for benign prostatic hyperplasia. C.P. has smoked for 40 years; for the past 3 years, he
has smoked two to three packs per day.

Two weeks ago, C.P. visited the local rural health clinic with complaints of a progressive cough and chest congestion. Despite a week of antibiotic therapy, C.P.'s condition
continued to worsen; he experienced progressive dyspnea and productive cough, and he began to have
night sweats. C.P. refused to be admitted to the hospital because "there's no one to look after the cows,"
but he agreed to go for a chest x-ray (CXR) study. The radiologist reads C.P.'s CXR film as "left hilar lung
mass, probable lung cancer." C.P. is scheduled for a diagnostic fiberoptic bronchoscopy with endobronchial lung biopsy as an outpatient this morning to confirm the diagnosis.
What information does a fiberoptic bronchoscopy with endobronchial lung biopsy provide?

Answer 1

During a fiberoptic bronchoscopy, the physician can visually examine for strictures, masses, and
inflammation, detect any bleeding, and locate foreign bodies in the bronchi. Bronchial washings
and biopsy specimens can be collected through the tube and sent to the laboratory for pathologic
analysis. A pathologist will perform a biopsy on C.P.'s lung tissue samples for the presence of
abnormal cells, particularly malignant cells, allowing for a definitive diagnosis.