Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia followed by polyarteritis nodosa complicating the course of bronchial asthma. Report of a case.

The syndrome of pulmonary infiltrates with eosinophilia (PIE) occurs rarely in the asthmatic patient. An unusual case is presented in which progressive bronchoconstriction and exaggerated blood eosinophilia preceded the recognition of two seemingly unrelated diseases, each of which can independently result in hypereosinophilia and the PIE syndrome. In the male patient studied, the first illness, biopsy-proved chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, was responsive to corticosteroid therapy. Four uneventful years later, polyarteritis nodosa with eventual pulmonary involvement developed. A careful search for specific underlying pulmonary and systemic disease is in order when hypereosinophilia occurs in the clinically unstable asthmatic patient.