Pulmonary
The Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care publishes articles broadly related to pulmonary medicine including thoracic surgery, transplantation, airways disease, pediatric pulmonology, anesthesiolgy, pharmacology, nursing and more. Manuscripts may be either basic or clinical original investigations or review articles. Potential authors of review articles are encouraged to contact the editors before submission, however, unsolicited review articles will be considered.
August 2017 Pulmonary Case of the Month
Lewis J. Wesselius, MD
Department of Pulmonary Medicine
Mayo Clinic Arizona
Scottsdale, AZ USA
History of Present Illness
The patient is a 60-year-old woman with dyspnea on exertion when she had a pulmonary embolism following knee surgery 3 years earlier. She smoked 1 pack per day for the past 40 years. She was seen at another hospital and had pulmonary function testing which showed only a DLco which was 66% of predicted. Serologic studies were negative for a rheumatologic disorder. A CT scan was also performed (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Representative images from thoracic CT scan in lung windows.
The CT scan was interpreted as showing a few small nodules and possible very early interstitial lung disease.
Which of the following are true? (Click on the correct answer to proceed to the second of five pages)
- A pulmonary embolism can reduce the DLco
- Her CT scan is characteristic of Langerhans cell histiocytosis
- Smoking can reduce the DLco
- 1 and 3
- All of the above
Cite as: Wesselius LJ. August 2017 pulmonary case of the month. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2017;15(2):54-60. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc096-17 PDF