[Diagnosis and treatment of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia]

A case of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP), confirmed by transfibroptic bronchoscope lung biopsy, was reported. CEP is a chronic interstitial lung disease characterized by cough, dyspnea, malaise, fever, night sweats, weight loss, variable degree of blood eosinophilia and film revealing peripheral nonsegmental nonmigratory infiltrates. It usually responds dramatically to corticosteroids. The authors suggested that a tentative diagnosis is often made on clinical grounds only without biopsy confirmation and corticosteroid therapy is instituted. It is necessary to perform lung biopsy for establishing the diagnosis when the patient has normal eosinophilic count, nonpheripheral lung infiltrats or other atypical manifestations.