1997 Volume 59 Issue 5 Pages 683-687
A 62-year-old man with a 6-month history of progressive sclerosis presented complaining of muscle weakness. Since an elevated serum CPK and histological findings of atrophied muscle indicated active myositis, the patient was diagnosed to have overlap syndrome. Three months later, interstitial pneumonia developed and thereafter rapidly progressed to adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with a concomitant decrease in the number of blood platelets. Pulse therapy using methylprednisolone promptly improved the condition of ARDS and the number of platelets thus gradually recovered. However, two weeks after the pulse therapy, the platelet level again decreased. The patient eventually died of acute renal failure and severe hemolytic anemia. The presence of pneumonia and/or ARDS was thus considered to induce the hemolytic uremic syndrome observed in this patient.
