[A case of minocycline-induced eosinophilic pneumonia presenting with multiple white eosinophilic plaques in the tracheobronchial mucosa]

Abstract

A 45-year-old man was admitted with a severe dry cough and fever. He had been given 100 mg/day of minocycline and other drugs for 9 days to treat hematopyuria. Chest X-ray film showed multiple nodular shadows with diffuse reticular shadows. After all the drugs were discontinued, the fever and the shadows improved, but the severe dry cough persisted. The day 4 bronchofiberscopic findings included multiple white plaques in the tracheobronchial mucosa. Punch biopsy specimens obtained from the white plaques revealed severe eosinophil infiltration, and the eosinophil count in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid had increased (differential count 23%). After three days of 125 mg/day of methylprednisolone sodium succinate injection therapy, the severe cough, the X-ray shadows and the white plaques disappeared. With a positive result in the lymphocyte migration inhibition test, the patient's condition was diagnosed as minocycline-induced eosinophilic pneumonia.