Rare Causes of Airflow Obstruction

The clinical and chest radiograph features of airflow obstruction are much the same whatever the cause. There is therefore a tendency to group together patients into easy diagnostic groups, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema or asthma, or chronic obstructive lung disease. This lazy and imprecise habit can result in the rarer causes of airflow obstruction being missed altogether. The conditions discussed below are usually misdiagnosed initially—not because diagnosis is difficult, but because they are not considered.