Introduction: Our article underlines the importance of a good professional anamnesis, knowing all the chemical components with which the patient had been exposed to during her active life as a teacher. Case presentation: A 64-year-old female patient, teacher for 27 years, who had been retired for six years, presented cough with white phlegm and shortness of breath occurring during physical exertion, diffuse thoracic pain, and fatigue. Several lung functional tests were performed, which established the diagnosis of irreversible minor mixed ventilatory dysfunction. In order to establish the etiology of the patient’s symptoms, multiple clinical, laboratory, imaging, and functional investigations were performed including a chest radiograph, pulmonary functional testing, bronchial reversibility testing, a thoracic CT scan, fibrobronchoscopy, alveolar-capillary diffusion capacity measurement, otorhinolaryngology examination, thyroid ultrasound, as well as a cardiological consult. Finally, a positive diagnosis was established: bronchial hyperreactivity syndrome, chalk dust-induced diffuse pulmonary fibrosis. Conclusion: An essential part of clinical practice is a proper anamnesis, including detailed information on the professional history and exposure, as well as the composition of the dust/particles with which the patient had been in contact with.

We discovered a rare pathology described in adulthood, followed by the development of a long asymptomatic evolution, which underlined the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration. We present the case of a 62-year-old female smoker patient, with a known previous medical history of chronic ischemic heart disease, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), gastric ulcer and gastritis. The patient was rushed to the emergency room (ER) with acute respiratory failure, chest discomfort, ankle and facial edema and a chest X-ray showing a right lower pulmonary lobe consolidation, with an alarming ischemic electrocardiogram (ECG) modification without increasing myocardial cytolysis indicators. This led our medical team to investigate a possible cardiovascular event that might have been in development. After immediate admission, thoracic computer tomography (CT) imaging was carried out, which found a Morgagni diaphragmatic hernia, containing adipose tissue and the hepatic flexure of the colon with approximate dimensions of 50/100 mm. We faced differential diagnostic problems. We knew the subject’s existing cardiac and chronic respiratory tract pathologies from their previous medical history; therefore, multiple investigations and check-ups were carried out. A chest CT and surgery intervention were needed to resolve this case. Subsequently, the acute respiratory failure and alarming ischemic ECG modification disappeared.