Broncholithiasis: its detection by computed tomography in patients with recurrent hemoptysis of unknown etiology.

Broncholithiasis is often not diagnosed by conventional roentgenography and fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Demonstrated here and three such cases of "recurrent hemoptysis of unknown etiology,". The broncholith in each case was clearly demonstrated only by the thoracic computed tomography (CT). We stress that CT is an extremely useful modality in the diagnosis of broncholithiasis and that the true incidence of broncholithiasis could be greater than was previously believed.