A rare cause of dyspnea in emergency medicine: transfusion-related acute lung injury.
The earliest definition of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) included all patients who developed acute respiratory distress, moderate to severe hypoxemia, rapid onset of pulmonary edema, mild to moderate hypotension, and fever within 6 hours of receiving a plasma containing blood transfusion. The definition excluded patients if they had underlying cardiac or respiratory disease. The mechanism is not known exactly but it causes morbidity and mortality. Incidence of TRALI changes between 0.08% and 15% of patients receiving a blood transfusion. A 78 year old female patient with history of myelodysplastic syndrome, coronary artey disease and hypertansion, was admitted to the hospital because of dyspnea after the blood transfusion. She was managed as TRALI after diagnostic workup and transported to the intensive care unit. In the following days her clinical status changed dramatically with complete recovery.
Emergency Department, İzmir Katip Çelebi University Atatürk Research and Training Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: yesimakyol@hotmail.com.
Pınar Yeşim
PY
Akyol
Erden Erol
EE
Unlüer
Pelin
P
Elibol
Arif
A
Karagöz
Fatih Esad
FE
Topal
D055371:Acute Lung Injury / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D000368:Aged; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D065227:Transfusion Reaction