[Acute eosinophilic pneumonia suggesting the involvement of health food].

A 25-year-old woman presenting with acute febrile illness, progressive dyspnea, and severe hypoxemia was admitted. Chest radiography and computed tomography (CT) showed diffuse ground-glass opacities in the bilateral lung fields. Initial examination revealed SpO2 to be 90%. Oxygen was administered at a gradually increasing rate from 3L/min to a maximum of 6 L/min during the course of the same night. The eosinophil count in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was 5.6%. A transbronchial lung biopsy revealed alveolar septal edema, fibrin-containing exudate in airspaces, and infiltration of eosinophils into the alveolar septa. Based on these findings, we diagnosed acute eosinophilic pneumonia. Corticosteroid therapy was administered, and the abnormal shadows disappeared. She had taken a health food (Mulberry Diet) for two weeks before admission. Although a drug-induced lymphocyte stimulation test for the health food was negative, we speculated that the acute eoshinophilic pneumonia was caused by health food.

[A case of non-small cell lung carcinoma successfully treated with carboplatin and weekly paclitaxel under renal dysfunction].

A 73-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with productive cough and dyspnea. His chest X-ray and CT scan showed a mass lesion on the lower lung field, pleural effusion on the left side, metastatic lesion in the right lung, and multiple metastases in the liver. The diagnosis was non-small cell carcinoma of the lung. Unfortunately, he had suffered from chronic nephritis; his creatinine level was 2.1, and his creatinine clearance was 29 ml/min. He received 4 courses of combined chemotherapy of carboplatin (AUC 5, day 1) and weekly paclitaxel (60 mg/ m2, day 1, 8, 15) every 4 weeks. His subjective symptoms as side effects were mild except for accidental melena due to colon diverticulum. Almost all lesions identified at admission were regressed by the chemotherapy. Although renal dysfunction often prevents patients with lung cancer from receiving systemic chemotherapies, in this case the combined chemotherapy of carboplatin and weekly paclitaxel proved to be a relatively safe and effective therapy for those patients with renal dysfunction.