Drug induced pulmonary diseases

Abstract

Drug reactions present to the clinician as a syndrome that may be due to a number of different causes, the patient's treatment being one possibility. In most clinical instances, a correct clinical diagnosis can be made if the physician is knowledgeable of the drugs which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of drug-induced lung reactions and recognizes the characteristic clinical and roentgenographic features present in each case. Management of pulmonary drug reactions consists in stopping the offending drug and if necessary, substituting a less harmful one. Corticosteroid therapy may be used in some cases.