Organizing pneumonia as a presentation of connective tissue disorders

Abstract

Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a clinical, radiological, and histological entity that is classified under the group of interstitial lung diseases. The diagnosis of OP is based on a characteristic histological pattern in the presence of certain clinical and radiological features. We present four cases of OP who presented with respiratory complaints of several weeks duration. Skin lesions typical of underlying connective tissue disorders were observed in three patients, and these were confirmed on biopsy. The diagnosis of OP was confirmed with the computed tomography scan thorax of all cases and additionally on histopathology of pulmonary lesions in two cases. All of these patients responded well to steroids, but one patient died due to respiratory failure.