A 34-year-old male non-smoker was admitted for incidentally found pulmonary nodules. He had previously been misdiagnosed with “pulmonary tuberculosis”. Computed tomography (Fig. 1) revealed numerous round nodules of varying sizes and densities, some with a characteristic “popcorn” calcification, diffusely distributed primarily in the upper and middle lobes of the right lung. The patient underwent a thoracotomy, during which many hard, grayish-white nodules measuring 0.3–3cm in diameter were observed. The postoperative pathological results confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary chondromatous hamartoma (PH) which primarily comprises cartilage. At his 4-year follow-up, the patient remained asymptomatic with no evidence of recurrence. PH is the most common benign tumor of the lung, characterized by solitary nodules on the periphery of the lungs, constituting 5–8% of all solitary pulmonary nodules.1 However, the PH nodules reported in this case exhibit a popcorn-like diffuse distribution, which is extremely uncommon. Therefore, identification of pulmonary hamartomas is still necessary for cases involving multiple calcified nodules.
The authors state that they have no conflict of interests.
