A Case of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome Likely due to Measles and Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Abstract

We described a case of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) likely due to measles and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. A 24-year-old, previously healthy man was referred to our hospital because of respiratory arrest. He was unconscious and cyanotic. He had erythematous and polymorphic eruptions on his extremities and trunk, but his face was spared. His chest roentogenogram showed consolidation with air bronchograms affecting the whole bilateral lungs. After mechanical ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure and administration of intravenous hydrocortisone and protease inhibitor “urinastatin” and so on, the patient recovered from his critical condition. No attributable organisms were isolated from the specimens investigated in his acute phase. Serological examinations of the specific IgM antibody to measles during the course indicated a recent measles infection. Mycoplasma pneumoniae indirect hemagglutination test rose from a titre of less than 1/40 to 1/60. ARDS is a rare complication of measles or Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. Moreover he received measles vaccine before 1970 in Japan, so this case was suspected to be atypical measles.