Radhakrishnan Nair Amita1, Samavedam Sandhyamani1, Madathipat Unnikrishnan2. 1. Department of Pathology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. 2. Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. E-mail: amita.rnair@sctimst.ac.in.
Sir,Thank you for showing interest[1] in our article[2] titled “Extensive unilateral pulmonary tuberculosis with segmental atresia of principal bronchus” and for the illuminating discussion.We do not claim that the segmental bronchial ‘atresia’ seen in our case is a congenital bronchial atresia. We attribute this ‘atresia’ to the underlying tuberculosis, which is more common and is well known to produce this type of luminal narrowing. There are articles using ‘atresia’ for acquired post-inflammatory occlusions as well.[34] But as pointed out “Extensive unilateral pulmonary tuberculosis with acquired segmental atresia of principal bronchus” would have been a better title, leaving no doubt to its etiology.