Abstract
A 27-year-old male with acute myelogenous leukemia received an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia developed on day 65 after the allo-BMT. The patient was intravenously treated with pentamidine. This resulted in a prompt improvement of his dyspnea and fever, but hyperkalemia occured during the pentamidine therapy. Treatment with pentamidine was stopped and emergent treatment was started. Neverthless, the serum potassium level rose to 7.7 mEq/L. Urgent dialysis was performed and the serum potasium level fell to 5.0 mEq/L after treatment. Careful monitoring of the serum potasium level is recommended during intravenous therapy with pentamidine.
