A 55-year-old woman with acute respiratory failure and radiographically clear lungs

Article Abstract:

A 55-year-old woman died of right-sided heart failure and respiratory failure caused by metastatic breast cancer cells that blocked the arteries and veins in her lungs. She was admitted to the hospital when her blood platelet count dropped and she developed respiratory distress. She had had a mastectomy two years earlier for breast cancer and no lymph node metastasis was discovered at that time. During her hospitalization, her blood pressure dropped and she went into shock. Suspecting pulmonary embolism, her doctors gave her a drug that breaks up blood clots, but her condition did not improve. She went into cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated. At autopsy, microscopic examination of pulmonary tissue samples revealed that breast cancer cells had spread to the lungs and blocked the flow of blood in lung tissue, a condition called embolism. This resulted in increased blood pressure in the lungs, a condition known as pulmonary hypertension, which caused her right-sided heart failure.

Breast cancer, Cancer metastasis, Heart failure, Respiratory insufficiency

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A 59-year-old woman with severe, progressive dyspnea

Article Abstract:

A 59-year-old women died from pulmonary (lungs) hypertension with necrotizing vasculitis, or inflammation of blood vessels causing tissue death. The patient was admitted to the hospital with increasing shortness of breath. She had started experiencing shortness of breath four or five years before admission to the hospital. She had quit smoking seven months before admission to the hospital, but the shortness of breath had continued to become worse. She was being treated with drugs for hypothyroidism and used supplemental oxygen at home. A chest X-ray revealed slight enlargement of the heart and fluid in the lungs. A computed tomographic (CT) scan of the chest showed lymph node enlargement and emphysema in the upper lobes of the lungs. A open-lung biopsy revealed that the patient was suffering from pulmonary hypertension with vasculitis. She died 14 days after admission to the hospital from heart failure caused by the lung disease.

Pulmonary hypertension, Vasculitis

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A 34-year-old woman with dyspnea and multiple small cystic areas in the lungs

Article Abstract:

A 34-year-old woman was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital for evaluation of a cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, fever and a rash. A lung biopsy showed pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma and talc crystals. The woman admitted to intravenous drug use as a teenager.

Granuloma

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