Ventilation-perfusion scintiscanning in tropical pulmonary eosinophilia

We report the findings of ventilation and perfusion scintiscanning performed in three untreated patients with acute tropical pulmonary eosinophilia (TPE). In a 26-year-old man whose arterial blood gas values were normal, the lung scan showed normal radioactivity. The scintigrams of a 20-year-old woman who had hypoxemia and hypercapnea showed gross ventilation defects of both lungs that were mainly mismatched; changes in the perfusion scan were minimal. Scintiscanning in a 14-year-old girl who had moderate arterial hypoxia and mild hypocapnea, on the other hand, showed ventilation defects in both lungs, more marked in left lung; multiple matching ventilation-perfusion defects were also seen; however, the V/Q defects did not appear to be equally matched. The scintigraphic findings were compatible with arterial blood gas status of the individual patients and consistent with the notion that a disturbed ventilation-perfusion relationship may be responsible for hypoxemia in some of the patients with TPE.