Figure legends
Figure 1. CT scan and bronchoscopic images of a 9 years old child with extrinsic tracheomalacia due to compression by aberrant innominate artery. A. CT scans show the anomalous course of the innominate artery (white arrows) that causes an extrinisic compression on the tracheal wall inducing the
reduction of the tracheal caliber (asterisk). B. Bronchoscopic image in quiet breth showing the significant reduction tracheal caliber due both to the extrinisic compression and the bulging of the posterior membranous wall. C. Bronchoscopic image during coughing, showing collapse of the tracheal walls and the almost complete obstruction of the lumen.
Figure 2. Distribution of children with secondary tracheomalacia induced different mediastinal vessel abnormalities. (A) Number of patients with aberrant innominate artery (AIA), right aortic arch (RAA), double aortic arch (DAA), and AIA and RAA in the whole population.
Figure 3. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell data in children with secondary tracheomalacia induced mediastinal vessel abnormalities (TM children), white bars, and normal reference value (gray bars). Data are presented as median values, interquartile range and min-max.
Figure 4. Percentage of bacteria grown in bronchoalveolar lavage sample cultures data in children with secondary tracheomalacia induced mediastinal vessel abnormalities: Haemophilus influenzae ,Streptococcus pneumoniae , Group A β-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS) and Moraxella catarrhalis .
Figure 5. Neutrophilic inflammation and bacterial load in bronchoalveolar lavage sample cultures. The percentage of BAL neutrophils is expressed on the ordinate and the colony-forming units (CFU)/mL on the abscissa.