Desquamative Interstitial Pneumonia in a Four-Year-Old Child

Abstract

IMPROVEMENT of diagnostic criteria during recent years has allowed the separation of several distinct entities from the large group of nonspecific diffuse lung diseases. One of the most recently described is the proliferative disorder of alveolar lining cells that Liebow, Steer and Billingsley¹ have called desquamative interstitial pneumonia. We have recently seen a four-year-old child with this disease, and since the previous published experience has been limited to adults,^{1 2 3} we consider the diagnostic problems and therapeutic response of this case to warrant a brief report.Case ReportA 4-year-old girl was first seen October 27, 1966, because of rapid respiration . . .