Early intervention can improve clinical outcome of acute interstitial pneumonia

To report on our experience with acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) in which patients underwent early diagnostic procedures and received mechanical ventilation with a "lung-protective" strategy and early institution of immunosuppressive therapy.

A retrospective chart review.

A tertiary referral hospital.

Ten patients with AIP who presented with idiopathic ARDS and showed diffuse alveolar damage on surgical lung biopsy specimens from July 1995 to March 2004.

The median age of patients was 65.5 years (age range, 38 to 73 years). Patients presented with a median duration of severe dyspnea of 9.5 days (range, 2 to 34 days) at the hospital visit. All patients required mechanical ventilation beginning at median time of hospital day 1 (range, hospital day 0 to 5), which continued for a median duration of 9.5 days (range, 4 to 98 days). Patients received ventilation in the pressure assist-control mode with a median tidal volume of 6.97 mL/kg (range, 6.05 to 8.86 mL/kg) and median positive end-expiratory pressure of 11 cm H(2)O (range, 8 to 16 cm H(2)O). An aggressive diagnostic workup for respiratory infection, including BAL at a median time of hospital day 2 (range, hospital day 1 to 5) was performed. High-dose steroid pulse therapy was initiated on median hospital day 3.5 (range, hospital day 1 to 8), while surgical lung biopsy was performed on median hospital day 4 (range, hospital day 2 to 7). Eight patients (80%) survived to hospital discharge.

Earlier intervention, such as an aggressive diagnostic approach, mechanical ventilation with lung-protective strategy, and the early institution of immunosuppressive may improve clinical outcome in patients with AIP.