Chest Pain and Progressive Miliary Infiltrates in an Elderly Man

Abstract

An 81-year-old man presented with persistent dyspnea and left pleuritic chest pain for 2 months following a left lower lobe pneumonia treated at another institution. He denied undergoing thoracentesis or pleural catheter drainage during treatment of the pneumonia. He reported resolution of cough, and denied hemoptysis, fever, night sweats, or weight loss. His exposure history included working on a farm as a teenager and in iron mines for 4 years in the 1950s, and retail sales work thereafter. He was a life-long nonsmoker, had no significant travel history outside of Minnesota, and his only pets were two cats and a dog.