High-resolution computed tomography findings in hantavirus pulmonary syndrome

The hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is an acute, rapidly progressive disease transmitted by rodent excreta, with endothelial damage playing a central role in the pathophysiology. It usually affects rural workers. The lung itself is the target organ and reflects all the patterns of endothelial involvement of this disease. The radiologic findings of HPS are vast and range from a mild interstitial involvement to total obliteration of the airspaces with or without pleural effusion. There are no specific findings on high-resolution computed tomography in HPS; nevertheless, findings of thickening of interlobular septa, ground-glass opacities, and occasionally small ill-defined nodular opacities have been described. The authors report a fulminant case of HPS and discuss its varied high-resolution computed tomography findings. To our knowledge, the "crazy-paving" pattern has not been seen previously in such cases.