[Clinical study of 20 cases of bronchial carcinoid].

We present a retrospective study of twenty patients in whom bronchial carcinoids, and five, peripheric. One case met the criteria of atypical carcinoid. The mean age of presentation was 46.66 +/- 17.07 years (15-76), with predominance of the female gender (3:2). Twenty per cent of patients were asymptomatic and in the remainder, the diagnosis suffered an average delay of 19 months since the appearance of symptoms. Such symptoms were cough (50%), recurrent pneumonias (40%), fever (35%), hemoptysis (35%), thoracal pain (30%), carcinoid syndrome (10%) and consumptive syndrome (5%). The radiology showed lobular or segmentary atelectasis (40%), nodule/mass (30%), lobular or segmentary consolidation (20%), obstructive pneumonitis (5%) and atypical pleural effusion (5%). Direct endoscopic vision offered a sensitivity of 84.6%, while transbronchial biopsy, just 69.2%. Metastasis in mediastinal, suprarenal, thyroid and brain gangliar chains were detected.