Acute respiratory distress syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome: circulating interleukin 4 level could be a marker

摘要

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently described emerging infectious disease responsible for atypical pneumonia which started in November 2002 in China. By the end of February, clusters of patients were observed in Hong Kong mainly related to close contacts and health-care workers . On March 12th , the WHO initiated a worldwide alert, the disease rapidly spread around the world . Initially a metapneumovirus was isolated from several patients but rapidly a new coronavirus, the SARS coronavirus, was isolated and fulfilled Koch’s postulates. Hematological manifestations in SARS were precisely described; lymphopenia and T lymphocytes depletion are often associated with the disease activity . We report the case of a patient with a SARS related-acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the evolution was characterized with two episodes of ARDS associated with a specific cytokine production pattern.