1993 Volume 34 Issue 6 Pages 478-483
We report here 2 cases of interstitial pneumonia (IP) which occurred during interferon (IFN) therapy for chronic aggressive hepatitis (CAH), type C. Case 1: A female patient aged 67 years was attacked by IP about 3 months after starting IFN-alpha-2a administration. The symptoms and signs of IP disappeared soon after discontinuing IFN administration and performing high-dose corticosteroid therapy. Case 2: A male patient aged 66 years who had CAH with cirrhosis, had already had a mild interstitial shadow on X-ray photograph. The patient complained of dry cough and dyspnea about a week after starting natural IFN-alpha administration, and the X-ray photograph revealed a diffuse interstitial shadow soon. In spite of discontinuing IFN and commencing high-dose corticosteroid therapy, the illness did not improve, and then the patient fell into respiratory failure, and died 34 days after the beginning IP. The 2 cases mentioned above suggests that IFN induces IP as one of the side effects.
