1999 Volume 38 Issue 11 Pages 896-899
A 65-year-old pigeon breeder who presented with acute hypersensitivity pneumonitis refused to give up contact with pigeons and her lung disease, which had initially improved in hospital in response to removal from pigeons, progressed to chronic interstitial flbrosis. Bronchoalveolar lavage lymphocytes fell from 50.0% of total cells in December 1986 to 27.1% in February 1990. The ratio of CD4+/CD8+ lymphocytes shifted from 0.43 to 1.47. Furthermore, IL-6 and TNF-α were elevated initially and were much higher at the second time point. These data pointed to the importance of CD4+ lymphocytes, IL-6 and TNF-α in the development of pulmonary fibrosis.
(Internal Medicine 38: 896-899, 1999)