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A 60-year-old asthmatic woman was admitted to our department because of bloody sputum and pneumonia. She had been treated with inhaled becromethasone dipropionate (800 micrograms/day) on an outpatient basis for 3 years. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed polypoid lesions in the trachea, most of which were removed with forceps during the procedure. Numerous lymphocytes were observed in the biopsy specimen. Because immunohistochemical staining denied a monoclonal origin for the accumulated lymphocytes, the lesion was diagnosed as an inflammatory polyp. The patient was treated successfully with antibiotics for her pneumonia, and on a follow-up bronchoscopy 6 months later, only a small remnant of the lesion was noted. This is the fourth report about inflammatory polyps in asthmatics. In the previous 3 cases, however, marked eosinophil infiltration was consistently reported. The lymphocyte predominance in the present case therefore suggests a distinct etiology rather than asthmatic airway inflammation.

A 26-year-old nurse consulted our department because of shortness of breath, wheezing and skin eruption after eating lunch several days before. At the consultation, the symptoms had disappeared, pulmonary function showed no abnormality, and there were no abnormal findings on chest auscultation. Latex allergy was suspected because of a history of wheezing and skin eruption after wearing latex gloves and an elevated serum IgE level specific to latex antigen. After a usage test of medical latex gloves, wheezing, skin eruption, and a decrease of FEV1.0 on pulmonary function testing were observed. The case was therefore diagnosed as latex allergy with bronchial asthma. Her symptoms were not observed after polymer coated gloves were substituted. Latex allergy is apt to complicate food allergy, an initial symptom of the present case. Specific IgE for several kinds of food was also elevated.