Spontaneous remission of desquamative interstitial pneumonia

We report a case of spontaneous remission of desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP) in a 50-year-old male. The histological diagnosis of DIP was based on open lung biopsy. A chest X-ray revealed reticulo-nodular shadows in the bilateral lung fields, and the patient had mild dyspnea on exertion. Without treatment, these shadows decreased gradually and disappeared after several months. The patient recovered completely within one year, and recurrence of the disease has not been observed for 4 years. Recently, DIP has rarely been described, and the spontaneous remission of DIP has not been reported since Carrington et al in 1978 (1).(Internal Medicine 36: 728-731, 1997)