[Idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis. Apropos of 1 case]

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis gives rise to anemia, due to repeated intra-alveolar hemorrhage, the reabsorption of which leads to hemosiderin deposits in the lung parenchyma. The authors report a case in a young woman aged 24 years whose illness started with anemia, then two months later, with hemoptysis and a broncho-pulmonary syndrome with a low grade fever. On the 6th month, there occurred a hazy infiltrate of both lung bases which was fleeting, mobile and recurrent. In the light of this triad of anemia, hemoptysis and infiltrates, the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis was made and confirmed by three examinations:--Lung biopsy: siderophages were found in the sub-mucosa,--Radio-isotope examination, using Fe 59 which revealed iron deposits in the lung,--A surgical lung biopsy which showed a congestive area and a fibrous area. The congestive area was the site of recent hemorrhage, the alveolar limits were filled with siderophages. The fibrous area was the site of chronic repair of older hemorrhage. It was mutilating. The course was complicated by massive bleeding which led to acute recovering respiratory failure. The patient is at present stabilised by corticosteroids. Three hundred cases of idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis have been reported in the world literature. Although the main characteristic is intra-alveolar hemorrhage, its course has not yet been determined. It seems however, to be due to an immunologic process as shown by the relationship between this curious disease and Goodpasture's syndrome.