ACUTE FIBRINOUS AND ORGANIZING PNEUMONIA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia (AFOP) has been recently identified as an unusual variant of acute lung injury. The typical features of AFOP are an acute or subacute onset of illness, bilateral basilar infiltrate and histologic findings of intra-alveolar fibrin in the form of fibrin “balls”. All the previously reported seventeen patients with AFOP were identified by a retrospective review of case material at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. We report a patient who had received a heart transplant and developed AFOP while on corticosteroids and other immunosuppressants.