2006 Volume 55 Issue 1 Pages 18-24
A 55-year-old man visited his neighborhood general practitioner complaining of headache, fever and wet cough on July 7, 2003, but there were no sigins that his symptoms would subside. Since an abnormal shadow was found on chest X-ray on July 11, he was referred to our department and hospitalized on the same day. We started to treat him on the assumption that he had community-acquired pneumonia due-to common pathogens. However, he developed severe hypoxemia, and abnormal shadows rapidly progressed to affect both lungs, which led us to suspect that he had acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We identified the pathogen by examining urinary antigens and serum antibodies and diagnosed of his case as Legionella pneumonia. Although he suffered complications of acute renal failure and shock, the respirator was withdrawn after 11 days of controlled mechanical ventilation, as he was steadily recovering from his illness. The patient was discharged from the hospital on September 9. Although the mortality of legionella pneumonia, when complicated by ARDS, acute renal failure and shock as in the present case, has been reported to be as high as 50 to 80%, we consider that the administration of neutrophil elastase inhibitors and steroids was effective against this disorder.
