[Chronic idiopathic eosinophilic pneumopathy. Carrington's disease].
Eleven cases of idiopathic chronic eosinophilic pneumonia were studied. Ten of the patients were followed up for more than 3 years and the last one for 15 years. The female predominance observed, the mean age of 51 years, the late manifestations of asthma-like symptoms preceding the systemic signs by 8 1/2 months on average and the scarcity of extra-pulmonary manifestations characterized the clinical data. The most frequent radiological signs were non-systematized, bilateral alveolar opacities in the axillary and apical regions, sometimes migratory and giving in 9 cases a mirror image of pulmonary oedema. Beside this major inflammatory syndrome, blood eosinophilia was present in 10 patients with 4,500 eosinophils on average per cubic millimetre. Eosinophils were also present in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of those who underwent this examination. Both clinical and radiological signs responded to corticosteroids in all cases, with return to normal chest radiography within less than 10 days. Subsequently, the possibility of radiological relapse in the same or other territories, together with the development of a steroid-dependent intrinsic asthma accounted for the fact that after a follow-up of about 3 years corticosteroid therapy could not be discontinued in any of our patients.
Bancal
C
C
Service de Pneumologie, Hôpital Avicenne, Bobigny.
Sadoun
D
D
Valeyre
D
D
Roucou
Y
Y
Clerici
C
C
Georges
R
R
Battesti
J P
JP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011657:Pulmonary Eosinophilia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011859:Radiography
Pneumopathie chronique idiopathique à éosinophiles. Maladie de Carrington.