Differential diagnosis of granulomatous lung disease: clues and pitfalls

Granulomatous lung diseases are a heterogeneous group of disorders that have a wide spectrum of pathologies with variable clinical manifestations and outcomes. Precise clinical evaluation, laboratory testing, pulmonary function testing, radiological imaging including high-resolution computed tomography and often histopathological assessment contribute to make a confident diagnosis of granulomatous lung diseases. Differential diagnosis is challenging, and includes both infectious (mycobacteria and fungi) and noninfectious lung diseases (sarcoidosis, necrotising sarcoid granulomatosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, hot tub lung, berylliosis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, rheumatoid nodules, talc granulomatosis, Langerhans cell histiocytosis and bronchocentric granulomatosis). Bronchoalveolar lavage, endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration, transbronchial cryobiopsy, positron emission tomography and genetic evaluation are potential candidates to improve the diagnostic accuracy for granulomatous lung diseases. As granuloma alone is a nonspecific histopathological finding, the multidisciplinary approach is important for a confident diagnosis.