Cocaine-Induced Steroid Resistant Organising Pneumonia in a Young Male: The Lows of Getting High.

Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a diffuse parenchymal lung disease occurring due to injury to the alveoli leading to typical histopathological features. Infections, connective tissue disorders, and medications are common aetiologies of OP. Cocaine-induced OP is uncommon. The patient had a fever and sore throat for two days corresponding to crack inhalation, followed by breathlessness that rapidly progressed to acute hypoxemic respiratory failure within one week. Radiology showed bilateral consolidation and ground glass opacities but did not respond to empiric treatment with antibiotics. After a multidisciplinary discussion, he was provisionally diagnosed as OP and treated with an intravenous methylprednisolone pulse dosage followed by oral prednisolone. OP was confirmed by surgical lung biopsy with the detection of Masson bodies. In view of progressive respiratory failure, steroid-resistant OP was diagnosed, and rituximab was administered as a second-line agent, but unfortunately, succumbed to respiratory failure. OP should be considered a differential in patients with consolidation who are non-responsive to initial conventional treatment. Multidisciplinary discussion and early lung biopsy to initiate immunosuppressants in the inflammatory stage of OP are emphasized for a possible better response.

An unexpected and unusual cause of pulmonary hypertension in a patient with hypersensitivity pneumonitis: a partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection causing pulmonary artery hypertension.

Partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection (PAPVC) occurs when any pulmonary vein, but not all, drains directly into the right atrium or its venous tributaries. PAPVC can very rarely present as an individual cause of pulmonary artery hypertension. Here we are presenting the case of a 41-year-old farmer with a history of exertional dyspnea for the past 3 years, which increased over 6 months. Chest high-resolution computed tomography was suggestive of non-fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Hence, the patient was started on systemic steroids, with which the patient's oxygen saturation improved. On 2D echocardiography, the right ventricle systolic pressure was 48 + right atrial pressure. Right heart catheterization showed a mean pulmonary artery pressure of 73 mmHg and pulmonary vascular resistance of 8.7. On further evaluation, a computed tomography pulmonary angiogram was done, which surprisingly revealed the left superior pulmonary vein draining into the left brachiocephalic vein.