Images in Clinical Medicine

Curschmann's Spirals

Phyllis R. Vezza, M.D., and Elizabeth A. Montgomery, M.D.

N Engl J Med 1998; 339:1043October 8, 1998

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Article

Figure 1 A 71-year-old woman with a history of asthma presented with a productive cough, fever, and shortness of breath that had begun four days previously. The patient had a white-cell count of 18,400 per cubic millimeter, with 68 percent eosinophils. A centrifuged sample of her bronchoalveolar-lavage specimen contained microscopic structures identified as Curschmann's spirals (Papanicolaou stain, ×1000). Curschmann's spirals, which can be seen on a wet preparation or on a Papanicolaou-stained specimen of respiratory secretions, are associated with the production of excess mucus in conditions such as asthma and bronchitis and as a result of smoking.

Phyllis R. Vezza, M.D.
Elizabeth A. Montgomery, M.D.
Georgetown University Medical School, Washington, DC 20007