Apropos of a case of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia associated with iridocyclitis and bronchial asthma

: In this study, we report the case of a 48 year-old female patient showing a clinical picture after a month's evolution consisting of cough, moderate effort dyspnoea, asthenia, anorexia and loss of weight. One year before, she had been diagnosed with bronchial asthma and she had been treated for two years with policarpine collyrium for a glaucoma simplex. The exploration only showed the existence of iris synechias in the right eye and conjunctival hyperaemia on the same side, together with basal crepitant rales on auscultation. Once we had proved the existence of a peripheral eosinophilia superior to three thousand elements per mm3 and of peripheral pulmonary infiltrates with radiographic negative for pulmonary edema, the picture was included in the so-called P.I.E. syndrome whose various etiologies were discarded subsequently. Following a pharmacological survey, a study of parasites in faeces and cutaneous tests as well as provocative tests, the specific causes of P.I.E. were discarded. According to the transbronchial biopsy and the biopsies of skin, nerve and muscle, it was unlikely that the diagnosis would be granulomatosis and/or angiitis. No evidence was found of any of the affections in which P.I.E. is regarded as a minor component. In view of the above, we thought the correct diagnosis was chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, since all the characteristics defining this picture according to Carrington were fulfilled. The treatment was started with corticoids and a clear improvement of all clinical symptoms was observed, including the ocular findings and the disappearance of radiographic pulmonary infiltrates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)