Acute eosinophilic pneumonia simulating severe community acquired pneumonia

Idiopathic acute eosinophilic pneumonia is a recently described cause of acute respiratory failure. It usually affects young healthy individuals. Usually non-pulmonary organs are not involved. Bronchoalveolar lavage eosinophilia is required for diagnosis. This disease responds uniformly to a short course of corticosteroids and does not recur. We report a young man who presented with a 2-day history of acute respiratory failure simulating severe community acquired pneumonia and necessitating mechanical ventilation. The diagnosis was made based on the classical clinical presentation and bronchoalveolar lavage and peripheral blood eosinophilia. Acute eosinophilic pneumonia in our patient was associated with acute hepatitis and erythema multiforme. To our knowledge, this is the first time to report such an association. The case is reported with review of the literature.