Acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) is a rare idiopathic interstitial lung disease with rapid progressive respiratory failure and high mortality. In the present report, three cases of AIP complicated by refractory respiratory failure supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are presented. One male and two female patients (ages 27-59) were included. Venovenous ECMO support was provided using miniaturized systems, with two-site femoro-jugular circuit configuration. Despite lung protective ventilation, prone position and neuromuscular blockade, refractory respiratory failure of unknown etiology supervened (ratio of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen 46-130) and ECMO was initiated after 3-7 days of mechanical ventilation. AIP diagnosis was established after exclusion of infectious and noninfectious acute respiratory distress syndrome on the basis of clinical and analytical data, bronchoalveolar lavage analysis and lung imaging, with a confirmatory surgical lung biopsy revealing diffuse alveolar damage of unknown etiology. Immunosuppressive treatment consisted in high-dose corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide in one case. Two patients survived to hospital discharge. ECMO allowed AIP diagnosis and treatment in the presence of refractory respiratory failure, therefore reducing ventilator-induced lung injury and bridging lung recovery in two patients. ECMO referral should be considered in refractory respiratory failure if AIP is suspected.

Acute Interstitial Pneumonia (AIP) is categorized as Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia (IIP), in which the cause is unknown. Ayoung female of 22 years presented in 34 weeks gestation with abruptio placentae (AP) and underwent Lower Segment Caesarian Section (LSCS) for AP. It progressed to type II respiratory failure secondary to AIPon 4th day post-surgery. It remained unresponsive when treated with noninvasive ventilation (NIV-BiPAP) along with antibiotics. Later, a trial treatment of pulse therapy of Methylprednisolone was executed on 7th day post-surgery which resulted in dramatic improvement in symptoms. It is uncommon to have type II respiratory failure secondary to AIP, and it is rarely steroid responsive.

A 53-year-old man with ulcerative colitis (UC) suffered fatal acute interstitial pneumonitis (AIP) post completing an accelerated infliximab induction course. This is the first case reported in this setting. A literature review found four similar cases of infliximab-induced interstitial lung disease in the setting of treating patients with UC using standard infliximab regimens had successful treatment of the subjects post infliximab discontinuation. Unfortunately, the patient we are presenting, who had an accelerated infliximab induction course, did not survive. Although a prior small trial along more recent new small studies continue to show a benefit in reducing the need for early colectomy with the accelerated infliximab induction regimen as salvage therapy, it should be used cautiously until more safety data are available. Further larger trials are required to investigate rare side effects that may be associated with this regimen such as rapidly progressive lung toxicity as seen in this patient.

A previously well, 45-year-old Pakistani lady was admitted to the medical unit on-call of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Peshawar with a 5-day history of fever, productive cough with copious mucoid sputum, dyspnea, and pleuritic chest pain. She also complained of dry eyes, mouth, and vagina. Her chest X-ray showed diffuse alveolar shadowing and arterial gas analysis confirmed type 1 respiratory failure. Over the next few days, she deteriorated rapidly making an urgent transfer to the medical intensive care unit (MICU) necessary, where she was mechanically ventilated. An HRCT followed by bronchoscopic biopsies made a diagnosis of acute interstitial pneumonitis (AIP), formerly known as Hamman-Rich syndrome. She also turned out to be positive for both anti-SS-A/Ro and anti-SS-B/La antibodies along with a positive Schirmer's test and lower lip biopsy. She received intravenous steroids and supportive care. The patient had a complete recovery after approximately three weeks' stay in the hospital with lung function returning back to normal. This is most probably the first ever case of primary Sjogren syndrome (pSjS) presenting as AIP, recovering completely in less than a month time.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is the clinical syndrome associated with histopathologic diffuse alveolar damage. It is a common cause of acute respiratory symptoms and admission to the intensive care unit. Diagnosis of ALI is typically based on clinical and radiographic criteria; however, because these criteria can be nonspecific, diagnostic uncertainty is common. A multidisciplinary approach that synthesizes clinical, imaging, and pathologic data can ensure an accurate diagnosis. Radiologists must be aware of the radiographic and computed tomographic findings of ALI and its mimics. This article discusses the multidisciplinary diagnosis of ALI from the perspective of the imager.

Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) may have an acute or subacute presentation, or acute exacerbation may occur in a previously subclinical or unrecognized chronic IIP. Acute or subacute IIPs include acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP), cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF) and AE-NSIP. Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) including connective tissue disease (CTD) associated ILD, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, acute eosinophilic pneumonia, drug-induced lung disease and diffuse alveolar haemorrhage need to be differentiated from acute and subacute IIPs. Despite the severe lack of randomized controlled trials for the treatment of acute and subacute IIPs, the mainstream treatment remains corticosteroid therapy. Other potential therapies reported in the literature include corticosteroids and immunosuppression, antibiotics, anticoagulants, neutrophil elastase inhibitor, autoantibody-targeted treatment, antifibrotics and hemoperfusion therapy. With regard to mechanical ventilation, patients in recent studies with acute and subacute IIPs have shown better survival than those in previous studies. Therefore, a careful value-laden decision about the indications for endotracheal intubation should be made for each patient. Noninvasive ventilation may be beneficial to reduce ventilator associated pneumonia.

Recently, the numbers of lung transplantation (LT) has been increased in Korea. However, post-LT outcome has not been successful in all patients, which may be partially affected by the primary lung disease. Therefore comprehensive understanding in original pathological diagnosis of patients with LT would be needed for achieving better clinical outcome. To address this issue, we performed clinico-pathological analysis of the explanted lungs from 29 patients who underwent LT over a 9-yr period in Seoul National University Hospital. Among them, 26 patients received single (1/26) or double (25/26) LT, while heart-lung transplantation was performed in 3 patients. The final clinico-pathological diagnoses were idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis/usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) (n = 6), acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP)/diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) (n = 4), AIP/non-specific interstitial pneumonia with DAD (n = 1), collagen vascular disease-related interstitial lung disease (CVD-ILD)/DAD (n = 3), CVD-ILD/UIP (n = 1), lymphangioleiomyomatosis (n = 1), bronchiectasis (n = 4), pulmonary arterial hypertension (n = 2), tuberculosis (n = 1), bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) (n = 1), and lung cancer (n = 1). Moreover, 4 patients who had chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation due to hematologic malignancy showed unclassifiable interstitial pneumonia with extensive fibrosis in the lungs. Our study demonstrates that pathology of the explanted lungs from Korean patients with LT is different from that of other countries except for interstitial lung disease and bronchiectasis, which may be helpful for optimization of selecting LT candidates for Korean patients.

Acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) of feedlot cattle is a sporadically occurring respiratory condition that is often fatal. Affected cattle have a sudden onset of labored breathing. There is no confirmed effective treatment of feedlot AIP; however, administration of antibiotics effective against common bacterial respiratory pathogens and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, especially aspirin, has been recommended. Protective strategies are not well defined, but efforts to limit dust exposure and heat stress; to ensure consistent formulation, mixing, and delivery of feed; and to identify and treat infectious respiratory disease in a timely manner may decrease rates of feedlot AIP.