Complex rhinobronchial dystrophy and immunodeficiency: Chance association or exceptional congenital syndrome?

Abstract

Introduction: We report a case of an exceptional syndromic association of apparently congenital rhinobronchial dystrophy associated with congenital anosmia and common variable immunodeficiency in a twelve-year-old girl.

Case summary: This young girl, born in 2000, consulted for the first time in 2012 for recurrent respiratory tract infections, refractory to all forms of treatment, starting in early childhood, associated with congenital anosmia and severe atrophic rhinitis as well as common variable immunodeficiency. The laboratory work-up essentially revealed IgG4 deficiency and imaging demonstrated bronchiectasis (lingula), multiple tracheobronchial diverticula, atrophic rhinitis and congenital anosmia with agenesis of the olfactory bulbs and sulci.

Discussion: After eliminating a number of differential diagnoses, we were left with the problem of the aetiology, the possible links between these various symptoms and the genetic basis for this apparently congenital complex rhinobronchial disease associated with common variable immunodeficiency. Do these various symptoms correspond to a chance association or an exceptional congenital syndrome that has not yet been identified in the literature?

Conclusion: A review of the clinical and genetic literature did not enable us to propose a single diagnosis for these symptoms or this complex syndrome.

Keywords: Atrophic rhinitis; Bronchiectasis; Common variable immunodeficiency; Congenital anosmia; Tracheobronchial diverticulum.