[Acute pulmonary edema from contrast media. A clinical case]

A rare and strong adverse reaction to contrast media (mdc) i.v. injected to carry out an abdominal vessels' angiography is reported. The patient suffered from non cardiogenic pulmonary edema and hypoxia. Chest X-ray detected the same radiological patterns of ARDS: in contrast alveolar edema became insignificant in 5 days. Serum immunocomplexes levels were high in the early phase of the reaction. Serum IgE, C3 and C4 were within the normal ranges. The case can be considered strongly significative because of the rarity of this syndrome; moreover, the early monitoring detected some data which could contribute to the knowledge of the physiopathology of contrast media adverse reaction. Overall, the presence of an immunological disease can increase the risk for adverse reactions to contrast media.