[Acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by pulmonary nocardiosis in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus].

Nocardia is a gram-positive bacillus that infects mainly immunodepressed patients. Its association with lupus erythematosus has been described only occasionally and we have found no reports in the literature of an association between lupus and acute respiratory distress syndrome due to pulmonary nocardiosis. We present such a case and discuss the mechanisms that make this lung infection so virulent as well as its epidemiological and microbiological characteristics, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment.