This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Nguyen, V A Articles by Sepp, N Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nguyen, V A Articles by Sepp, N Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Acute pulmonary edema, capillaritis and alveolar hemorrhage: pulmonary manifestations coexistent in antiphospholipid syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus?

Department of Dermatology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria, van.nguyen{at}uibk.ac.at

T Gotwald

Department of Radiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

C Prior

Department of Internal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

G Obermoser

Department of Dermatology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

N Sepp

Department of Dermatology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

Pulmonary capillaritis and alveolar hemorrhage are rare yet serious and life threatening complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Pulmonary manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) are similar and include, apart from pulmonary embolism and pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary capillaritis, diffuse alveolar hemorrhage and respiratory insufficiency in patients with catastrophic APS. Herein, we described the radiological features of three patients with pulmonary and SLE-associated APS, manifested with pulmonary edema, capillaritis and alveolar hemorrhage. We observed that the radiological features of pulmonary APS shared close resemblance to those of pulmonary SLE. Based on these findings, we conclude that both entities are not only histologically, but also radiologically indistinguishable from each other, suggesting a mutual pathogenetic mechanism. This raises the question of whether some of the reported lupus pneumonitis cases in the past might be manifestations of APS rather than of SLE.

Key Words: alveolar hemorrhage • antiphospholipid syndrome • pulmonary capillaritis • pulmonary radiologic features • systemic lupus erythematosus

Lupus, Vol. 14, No. 7, 557-560 (2005)
DOI: 10.1191/0961203305lu2107cr


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?