Respiratory bronchiolitis: An unusual cause of pulmonary infiltrates in a pregnant woman

Numerous mechanical, biochemical, and immunologic changes occur during preg nancy. Because of these changes, pregnant women are more susceptible to inf ection, thromboembolic disease, exacerbation of underlying immunologic dise ase, and heart failure than women who are not pregnant. The differential di agnosis of diffuse pulmonary infiltrates in a pregnant woman is broad; thus , the work-up can be very challenging. If the patient fails to respond to c onservative measures, such as antibiotics, the cause of the infiltrate must be aggressively evaluated because the treatment may be essential for the s urvival of the mother and fetus. We report a case of a pregnant woman who p resented with diffuse bilateral infiltrates, After video-assisted thoracosc opic lung biopsy, this patient was found to have respiratory bronchiolitis, a disease not previously reported during pregnancy. Treatment with glucoco rticoids resulted in a prompt improvement in symptoms.