1/42. Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia with pleural effusion.The case history of a 77-year-old lady with chronic eosinophilic pneumonia is presented. The diagnosis was difficult due to the simultaneous presence of a pleural effusion and congestive heart failure. Radiological findings and treatment are discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/42. Bronchial mucormycosis with progressive air trapping.A previously healthy 70-year-old woman developed fever, cough, and exertional dyspnea. Her symptoms progressed over a 2-month period despite treatment by her primary care physician with 2 courses of oral antibiotics and the addition of prednisone. Hypoxemia and the finding of hyperglycemia with mild ketoacidosis led to hospital admission. Serial chest radiographs demonstrated diffuse heterogeneous pulmonary opacities and progressive air trapping in the right lower lobe. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed a deep penetrating ulcer with exposed bronchial cartilage of the bronchus intermedius and dynamic airway obstruction with complete closure during expiration. biopsy of the ulcer revealed rhizopus arrhizus. Respiratory failure stabilized with the patient on conventional mechanical ventilation and receiving amphotericin b. Before surgery could be performed, pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia and septic shock developed, and the patient died.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.2keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/42. Vascular rings of the thoracic aorta in adults.Vascular rings have been well documented to cause respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms in infants and children. Few reports document symptomatic vascular rings in adults, and most have emphasized dysphagia as the predominant symptom. We present the case of a 36-year-old white male with a double aortic arch and progressive dyspnea on exertion. This led us to review previous reports of vascular rings in adults. Criteria for review consisted of anatomically complete vascular rings of the aortic arch in adults age 18 years or older. We identified 25 prior cases for review and included our recent patient. The most common vascular ring anomalies in our review of adults is double aortic arch (n = 12; 46%) followed by right aortic arch with aberrant left subclavian artery and ligamentum arteriosum (n = 8; 30%). Of 24 patients (66%), 16 were symptomatic. Reported symptoms involving the respiratory tract (n = 10 of 24; 42%) included dyspnea on exertion (n = 5), bronchitis (n = 2), recurrent pneumonia, stridor, and unspecified respiratory ailment (n = 1 each). Dysphagia was less common, occurring in eight patients (33%). Previously proposed mechanisms for respiratory tract symptoms include tracheomalacia, static or dynamic compression of the airways, intravascular volume infusion, and aspiration. We also propose exercise-induced dilatation of the aortic arch and age-dependent changes in thoracic compliance as potential mechanisms of dyspnea.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.2keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/42. Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia: a case report.Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP) is a disorder, characterized by a history of pneumonia (> 2 months) and eosinophilic pulmonary infiltration without any organic causes. We describe a 28-year-old woman who presented with cough, dyspnea and fever for 2 months. She was diagnosed with mild asthma and allergic rhinitis 2 years before being diagnosed with CEP. For a period of 9 months she took no medication. Her chest roentgenogram at this admission revealed patchy infiltration in both upper lung fields. Laboratory data revealed blood eosinophilia (4,284/mm3), and her serum IgE was mildly elevated (245.8 IU/ml). A computerized tomography of the chest did not show bronchiectasis. CEP was diagnosed from significant eosinophilia in bronchoalveolar larvage fluid and transbronchial biopsy revealed eosinophilic infiltration without any demonstrable infectious agent. The patient was treated with prednisolone 45 mg/day. Her symptoms disappeared and her chest roentgenogram showed nearly complete resolution in 2 and 4 days, consecutively.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.2keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/42. Acute eosinophilic pneumonia following cigarette smoking.Two cases of acute eosinophilic pneumonia following cigarette smoking are analyzed for characteristic features. The first patient noted dyspnea 14 days after initiation of smoking. The second patient noted dyspnea 12 days after beginning to smoke. Both cases had characteristic features including occurrence at an age younger than 30 years; less than 1 month duration of cigarette smoking before onset of disease; and no identifiable cause of acute eosinophilic pneumonia apart from smoking. We believe that acute eosinophilic pneumonia following cigarette smoking, which has characteristic features as described above, should be considered as a distinct subtype of AEP.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1.4keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/42. Endobronchial inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung.Inflammatory pseudotumor (also called plasma cell granuloma, histiocytoma and x-anthofibroma) is a benign, slow growing lesion which may present with cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis and unresolving pneumonia or can be discovered radiographically as a localised lesion. It has been reported in individuals up to 70 years old, but approximately two-thirds have developed in individuals under 30 years of age. The sex incidence is approximately equal. Inflammatory pseudotumors of the lung are usually peripheral lesions but may occasionally be endobronchial. We report the case of an endobronchial inflammatory pseudotumor in a 17-year-old girl who presented with unresolving right-sided pneumonia. Appropriate radiological, bronchoscopic and histopathological investigations lead to accurate pre-operative diagnosis and early complete surgical resection through a limited right main bronchus incision (bronchotomy). The patient made good postoperative recovery and an excellent prognosis is anticipated.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.4keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/42. Successful treatment of endogenous lipoid pneumonia due to Niemann-Pick Type B disease with whole-lung lavage.In Type B Niemann-Pick disease, progressive pulmonary infiltration is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, although the disease is usually diagnosed before adulthood in other organ systems. To date, no successful treatment of pulmonary involvement by Niemann-Pick disease has been documented. We describe the case of a patient with Niemann-Pick Type B disease who presented with extensive endogenous lipoid pneumonia and life-threatening hypoxia following bypass grafting for severe coronary artery disease. A surgical lung biopsy at the time of grafting revealed characteristic histology and ultrastructural features of Niemann-Pick disease, with confirmatory findings in biochemical studies. Because of the severity of the patient's symptoms, bilateral whole-lung lavage was undertaken, leading to symptomatic improvement, lessening of parenchymal opacification on high-resolution computed tomographic scanning, and a marked improvement in resting arterial oxygen tension while breathing air to 10.3 kPa from 8.4 kPa. Whole-lung lavage may be a potentially useful modality of treatment for patients with pulmonary involvement by Niemann-Pick Type B disease.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/42. Breathless.This case presented the scenario of a patient who had severe bronchospasm from an unknown etiology. Further, she had difficulty speaking and denied any past medical history, which made a diagnosis more difficult. Prehospital providers were challenged with determining the differential diagnosis for bronchospasm and hypoxemia. Was the patient experiencing an anaphylactic reaction, acute asthmatic attack or something else? The key here, once again, is conducting a thorough assessment and patient history. Remember, all that wheezes is not asthma; therefore, providers in this case had to determine if the patient was suffering something such as anaphylaxis, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia or even congestive heart failure (CHF). Typically, anaphylaxis and asthma affect ventilation, not oxygenation, so until the late stages of anaphylaxis or asthma, the patient will have difficulty moving air, but will be oxygenating OK. We understand that many respiratory conditions can cause wheezing, but CHF? Yes: As left ventricular function diminishes and leads to increased pulmonary pressure, serum begins to leak out of the pulmonary vessels and into the interstitial space. As the interstitial pressure increases, it causes narrowing of the bronchioles, and air traveling through the narrowed bronchioles causes the wheezing sound. Fluid may also be leaking out of the pulmonary capillaries and occupying space in the alveolar sacs. When the interstitial pressure is high and the bronchioles continue to narrow, providers may initially hear only the wheezing and not the crackles from the smaller airways. In these conditions, oxygen is not exchanged adequately into the blood, and the patient becomes hypoxemic. Good assessment and patient history will guide the EMS provider to the cause of bronchospasm. For example, does the patient have a history of asthma? If yes, asthma is likely to be the cause. Does the patient have any rash, hives or swelling? If yes, anaphylaxis is likely the cause. Is the patient elderly, and does he/she show pedal edema, JVD, hypoxemia and/or distended neck veins? If yes, CHF may be the cause. [table: see text] There are questions regarding the use of bronchodilators in patients suffering CHF. If a CHF patient is wheezing (bronchospasm), then a beta-2 selective breathing treatment may be appropriate, along with nitrates and diuretics. Oxygenation is the critical problem in CHF, and hypoxemia will continue to worsen cardiac function. Remember, both bronchoconstriction and alveolar sacs filling with fluid will impair oxygenation of the RBCs and ultimately the vital organs. Focused prehospital management of CHF is aggressive in restoring oxygenation. For example, many agencies are now using oxygen, nitrates, ACE inhibitors and CPAP. By better understanding the pathophysiology of respiratory emergencies and their differential diagnosis, we will improve patient outcomes.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.2keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/42. pneumocystis carinii pneumonia with pleurisy, platypnoea and orthodeoxia.We present a patient who collapsed with chest pain and dyspnoea on a transatlantic flight. She was found to have pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Platypnoea and orthodeoxia, which have not been previously reported in association with PCP, were major features of her illness. The PCP predominantly affected her lung bases and it is likely that gravity increased intrapulmonary blood flow through poorly ventilated lung bases with failure of pulmonary vasoconstriction to increase upper zone perfusion, exacerbating desaturation on sitting up. The partial dna sequence of the infecting P carinii was identical to previously described isolates.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/42. CMV infection and pneumonia in hematological malignancies.While infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV), a member of the herpes virus family is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients who are immunosuppressed because of previous allogeneic bone marrow transplant, viral infection and subsequent disease are rarely reported in haematological diseases unrelated to this condition. We report here three cases of CMV pneumonia in patients affected by nonHodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and myeloma. The role of T-cell depletion is discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = pneumonia (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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