Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia due to radiographic contrast administration: an orphan disease?

Abstract

Pulmonary eosinophilia comprises a heterogeneous group of diseases that are defined by eosinophilia in pulmonary infiltrates or in tissue. Drugs can cause almost all histopathologic patterns of interstitial pneumonias, such as cellular and fibrotic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary infiltrates and eosinophilia, organizing pneumonia, lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia, desquamative interstitial pneumonia, a pulmonary granulomatosis-like reaction, and a usual interstitial pneumonia-like pattern. We present a very rare case of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia due to radiographic contrast infusion diagnosed with video-assisted thoracoscopy. The patient after 1 year is still under corticosteroid treatment with the disease stabilized.

Keywords:

• interstitial lung disease
• radiographic contrast
• orphan disease

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Dr Martin C Freund, Radiology Department, University of Innsbruck, Austria, for his expert evaluation on the radiology figures.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.