Interstitial pulmonary edema revealed by high-resolution CT after relief of acute upper airway obstruction.

We report a case of acute pulmonary edema appearing soon after relief of an acute upper airway obstruction. The patient choked on some pieces of beef during dinner and fainted. He was quickly aided by paramedics and taken to our emergency room with persistent dyspnea and wheezing. His chest radiograph showed bilateral pulmonary edema predominantly distributed in the upper lung field, and high-resolution CT (HRCT) revealed that the pulmonary edema was mainly in the interstitium. The patient recovered uneventfully. HRCT clearly disclosed the characteristics of pulmonary edema of acute upper airway obstruction.