A 42-Year-Old Woman With Abnormal Chest CT Scan and Chylous Ascites.

Abstract

A 42-year-old white woman presented to the pulmonary clinic for evaluation of abnormal chest imaging. Twenty years prior to presentation, she was noted to have an abnormal chest radiograph during a routine preemployment evaluation. A subsequent bronchoscopy was nondiagnostic. She was followed up with annual imaging, which demonstrated little or no progression of her disease. She remained symptom free throughout this period. A year before her visit to the pulmonary clinic, she developed abdominal discomfort and was found to have ascites. Subsequently, she underwent three paracenteses with analysis revealing chylous fluid. She was a nonsmoker without a history of exposures or travel.