Hasegawa Y, Takanashi S, Yasugahira H, Sato J, Okudera K, Sato T, Hayashi M, Kanazawa T, Onodera K
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Hirosaki University, School of Medicine, Aomori Japan.
Nihon Kyobu Shikkan Gakkai Zasshi. 1995 Nov;33(11):1302-6.
A 56-year-old man was transferred to our department from the department of oral surgery, with a high fever and a cough. He had inhaled a fibrinolysin-deoxyribonuclease mixture (Elase) to treat inflammation in the oral cavity after resection of an oral tumor. A chest X-ray film showed diffuse patchy shadows in both lung fields. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid had an abnormally high number of lymphocytes and transbronchial lung biopsy revealed interstitial infiltration by lymphocytes and histiocytes, with granulomatous lesions. The patient was treated with steroids, and his clinical condition improved markedly. He accidentally inhaled the drug again, and the coughing and fever began again. The drug lymphocyte stimulation test was positive only for the fibrinolysin-deoxyribonuclease mixture. Based on these findings, we diagnosed pneumonitis induced by this fibrinolysin-deoxyribonuclease mixture. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of pneumonitis caused by this fibrinolysin-doxyribonuclease mixture.
