1/3. Eosinophilic pneumonia and respiratory failure associated with venlafaxine treatment.Drugs are well known causes of eosinophilic lung disease. In many patients, symptoms increase slowly, pulmonary infiltrates and eosinophilia progress over weeks, and resolve upon withdrawal of the offending agent. Rarely, the disease presents like acute eosinophilic pneumonia with acute onset of symptoms and rapidly progressing infiltrates which may be associated with respiratory failure. This report describe a case of venlafaxine-induced acute eosinophilic pneumonia causing respiratory insufficiency that rapidly resolved upon institution of corticosteroid treatment. This 5-hydroxytryptamine and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor was previously not known to cause lung or peripheral blood eosinophilia. Considering the increasing use of this class of medication physicians have to be aware of this life-threatening and fully reversible complication.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/3. Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia: a cause of adult respiratory distress syndrome.It is important that physicians not overlook the diagnosis of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP), since this disorder is readily reversible with corticosteroid therapy. Six patients with CEP were seen at our institution between 1979 and 1983. We present their clinical features, chest films, and pathologic findings, and review the literature on CEP. While most of our patients had the classic chest x-ray pattern of peripheral opacities in a nonsegmental distribution, two had atypical features with diffuse abnormalities on x-ray films. In fact, the two patients who had adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), presented diagnostic difficulty and required admission to the intensive care unit. In contradistinction to the four patients with classic CEP, the two with ARDS had a delayed response to corticosteroids. Therefore, we conclude that chronic eosinophilic pneumonia is an important entity to recognize as a potentially fatal cause of the adult respiratory distress syndrome.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/3. Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia masquerading as acute bronchial asthma.With the influx of immigrants from developing countries, deployment of American troops on foreign soil, and wide-ranging travel patterns of some united states citizens, one should expect an increase in the frequency of parasitic pulmonary diseases. We report a case of tropical pulmonary eosinophilia in a recent immigrant to Upstate new york from india. Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia is unfamiliar to most physicians practicing in north america, but should be included in the differential diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis with hypereosinophilia when there is a history of recent travel to or residence in endemic areas. Furthermore, knowledge of this entity should also help in the differential diagnosis of other hypereosinophilic syndromes.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |