Case Report: Pulmonary hemorrhage as a rare cause of lung ultrasound A/B-profile

When using lung ultrasound to determine the cause of acute respiratory failure, the BLUE protocol is often used. In a 65-year old patient, an A/B-profile was found, suggesting pneumonia, following the flowchart of this protocol. In this case, however, pulmonary hemorrhage confirmed by bronchoscopy was the final diagnosis. This case report outlines the importance of understanding the limitations of the BLUE protocol and that lung ultrasound findings should always be used in the context of the patient’s history and physical exam. In addition, pulmonary hemorrhage should be considered in patients with no clinical signs of pneumonia and/or presence of risk factors for lung bleeding as a rare cause of lung ultrasound A/B-profile.

Pediatric Pulmonary Hemorrhage vs. Extrapulmonary Bleeding in the Differential Diagnosis of Hemoptysis

Introduction

Hemoptysis is an important symptom which causes a major concern, and warrants immediate diagnostic attention. The authors compared a group of patients with pediatric pulmonary hemorrhage with pediatric patients diagnosed with extrapulmonary bleeding focusing on differences in etiology, outcome and differential diagnosis of hemoptysis.

Methods

We performed the retrospective analysis of medical charts of 134 pediatric patients admitted to the Emergency Department because of pulmonary and extrapulmonary hemorrhage and were diagnosed with suspected hemoptysis or developed hemoptysis (ICD10-CM code R04.2). The cases with pulmonary hemorrhage (Group 1) were compared with cases of extrapulmonary bleeding (Group 2) using the Fisher Exact test or Pearson's χ² test for categorical variables. The t-test was used to assess differences between continuous variables of the patients in the two groups.

Results

Bloody cough was the presenting symptom in 73.9% of cases. 30 patients had pulmonary hemorrhage (Group 1), while 104 patients had extrapulmonary bleeding (Group 2). The underlying causes of bleeding in Group 2 included epistaxis, inflammatory diseases of nasopharynx and larynx, foreign bodies, gingivitis, and hypertrophy of adenoids. Mortality rate was 10% in Group 1, whereas Group 2 did not have any mortality outcomes during the observation period. Etiologycal factors were significantly different between hemoptysis and extrapulmonary bleeding in children.

Conclusions

Our research suggested that pulmonary and extrapulmonary bleeding are two conditions that differ significantly and cannot be unified under one diagnostic code. It is important to differentiate between focal and diffuse cases, and between pulmonary and extrapulmonary hemorrhage due to the diversity of clinical courses and outcomes.

Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage in Patients Undergoing Neurointervention: A Case Report

INTRODUCTION

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is a very rare complication but acute and life-threatening event. Clopidogrel has generally administered for neurointerventional surgery, but there were no reports of DAH related to clopidogrel in patients undergoing neurointervention.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 70-year-old male presented with DAH associated with clopidogrel after transfemoral cerebral angiography and coil embolization for cerebral aneurysm. The chest radiography showed bilateral symmetric peribronchial consolidation and bronchoscopy revealed diffuse hemorrhage on the bronchial wall at the bilateral lung. Clopidogrel was withdrawn and mechanical ventilation was applied for postoperative three days.

CONCLUSIONS

Small dose of clopidogrel (75 mg) may lead to rare, life-threatening DAH, so physicians should be aware of the possibility of DAH after neurointervention in patients who have respiratory distress, worsening alveolar infiltrates accompanied by hemoptysis.