Pulmonary granulomatous vasculitis induced by insoluble particulates: a case report

The authors report a case of a 39-year-old woman who sustained an injury to her left knee requiring arthroscopic surgical medial menisectomy and ganglionic block for reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome. Approximately 1 year after injury, the patient presented with an elevated white blood cell count and fever and was diagnosed to have a psoas muscle abscess, which was treated with antibiotics. She was also taking 4 different oral medications that contained microcrystalline cellulose as a filter. Approximately 1 month after being diagnosed with the psoas muscle abscess, the patient developed shortness of breath, marked weakness, diaphoresis, and intermittent emesis. She became hypotensive and tachyneic and expired. Postmortem examination showed granulomatous vasculitis with extensive occlusions of pulmonary arteries by birefringent crystalline material identified to be cellulose histochemically and by analytical electron microscopy evaluation. This case report describes the ultrastructural and chemical features of various medicinal tablet fillers and compares them to pure samples. This report also demonstrates the usefulness of analytical electron microscopy in accurately identifying birefringent material in lung tissue.