title: Parainfluenza virus pneumonitis in an adult.
abstract: Parainfluenza virus uncommonly causes fatal giant cell pneumonia in immunocompromised infants and children. To our knowledge, this is the first adult case of parainfluenza virus pneumonia. A 77-year-old woman who was diagnosed as having small-cell carcinoma of the lung underwent chemotherapy. She died of lung edema. Analysis of her serum showed antibodies to parainfluenza virus types 2 and 3 at titers of 1:64 and 1:128, respectively. The postmortem examination revealed giant cell pneumonia, in which giant cells and detached alveolar lining cells had intracytoplasmic inclusions. On electron microscopic examination, the intracytoplasmic inclusions contained fuzzy-form nucleocapsids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Medical College of Oita, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akizuki
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nasu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Setoguchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Higuchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy; D010223:Parainfluenza Virus 2, Human / Q000032:analysis; D010224:Parainfluenza Virus 3, Human / Q000032:analysis; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D018108:Respirovirus