[A case of acute lupus pneumonitis]

Forty-five-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus who had treated with sulindac had exacerbation of her rash and arthralgia. On her admission for treatment, chest X-ray showed bilateral pathy infiltrates in lower lung fields. We performed a transbronchial lung biopsy. Immunohistopathologic studies showed granular deposits of IgM and C 3 in the subendothelial area of pulmonary arteriolae. She was treated with prednisolone (1.0 mg/kg/day) and deoxyspergualin. Chest X-ray showed improvement and her serum IgG, anti-DNA antibodies and complement diminished quickly. We suggest that these immunopathologic observations may be important in the pathogenesis of the lung injury in systemic lupus erythematosus.