| Summary: | No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A 44 year-old man with a history of asthma presented to the hospital with encephalopathy, severe hypoxia and what was reported to be hematemesis. The patient was intubated in the Emergency Department and mechanical ventilation was instituted. Upper endoscopy was performed but source of bleeding could not be identified. Imaging of the chest showed pulmonary consolidation on both plain radiograph (D) and computed tomography (A-C). Bronchoscopy revealed a very friable mucosa with sloughing of the respiratory epithelium from the main carina (F) to at least the subsegmental level. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) returned bloody fluid (E) but without any increase in blood with subsequent aliquots of fluid. The patient had progressively worsening hypoxia consistent with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring rescue maneuvers including paralysis, airway pressure release ventilation, and inhaled nitric oxide but we were unable to implement proning or transfer for extracorporeal life support due to profound cardiovascular ...
|
|---|
