Organizing diffuse alveolar damage and antiphospholipid syndrome: Report of an unusual pulmonary pattern

Abstract

The antiphospholipid syndrome can occur as a primary disease without relationship to other immunologic complications and venous thrombosis following assymptomatic thrombocytopenia comprehends the commom clinical course. Circulating antibodies against cellular membranes phospholipids induce arterial and venous trombosis in any organ as well as inflammatory reactions. In the lung, embolism and alveolar hemorrhage are the expected complications. In addition, interstitial lung disease may happen as in this case of a 23-year-old woman with an abrupt onset of diffuse alveolar damage with bronchocentric BOOP-like pattern confirmed by surgical lung biopsy; Budd-Chiari syndrome joined perfusion renal failure and the acute respiratory syndrome; acute cholecystitis developed five months after mechanical ventilation which lasted for eight months.