Unusual Case of Acute Lung Injury in a Renal Allograft Recipient

Hemoptysis in Renal Transplant Recipients

Background:

Hemoptysis is the expectoration of blood from respiratory system. Clinical entities associated with hemoptysis in renal transplant recipients differ from those causing hemoptysis in common population. This review summarizes all reported clinical conditions related to hemoptysis in renal transplant patients, their causes, diagnostic approach and management.

Methods and Materials:

Primary literature was researched through MEDLINE/PubMed database and Google Scholar without restrictions. Relevant and current literatures related to hemoptysis in renal transplant recipients were used.

Results:

Overall 23 articles were included, since they report clinical conditions associated with hemoptysis in renal transplant recipients. Opportunistic lung infections, pulmonary hemorrhage associated with drugs and malignancies are usual causes of hemoptysis in these patients, sometimes with a fatal outcome.

Conclusions:

Hemoptysis is an important manifestation in renal transplant patients, caused frequently by rare clinical entities, different from those in common population.

Pulmonary Complications After Solid Organ Transplantation: An Autopsy Perspective

Pulmonary complications following solid organ transplantation are common and often infectious in nature. Articles describing noninfectious pulmonary complications overwhelmingly rely on clinical and radiographic data. There are a limited number of studies with companion histology delineating the clinical diagnoses of pulmonary complications. This contrasts with blood and bone marrow transplantations. Using a retrospective cohort approach, the current study aimed to assess antemortem and postmortem pulmonary findings in solid organ transplantation recipients. Medical records and autopsy materials from 92 solid organ transplantation recipients were reviewed. Pulmonary complications were identified in 70 patients (76%). For patients with pulmonary complications at autopsy the mean survival posttransplantation was 3.48 years as compared to 7.29 years for patients without pulmonary complications at autopsy (P = .01). Twenty-eight infectious complications (fungal pneumonia, n = 20; cytomegalovirus pneumonia, n = 7; bacterial pneumonia, n = 1) and 113 noninfectious pulmonary complications were identified. The most common noninfectious findings were diffuse alveolar damage (n = 32), organizing pneumonia (n = 31), and pulmonary thromboemboli (n = 26). Disseminated infections and respiratory failure were the most common immediate causes of death (n = 24 and n = 23, respectively). Most noninfectious complications were not diagnosed antemortem.