Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome may present as severe restrictive lung disease

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A majority of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) will develop pulmonary disease at some point during their clinical course. Most patients with AIDS-related pulmonary disease present with the subacute onset of fever, cough, and dyspnea often in the context of other clinical findings that suggest infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [l]. Clinicians must be alert to uncommon presentations of AIDS that may occur, particularly in patients who do not have apparent risk factors for infection with HIV. In the current report, we describe an atypical pulmonary presentation of AIDS that was associated with unusual histopathologic findings of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.