Acute Interstitial Pneumonia Developed in a 3-Year-Old Boy

Acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) is one of the interstitial lung diseases characterized by rapid development of progressive dyspnea with cough and histopathologically diffuse alveolar damage by unknown cause. Because the overall onset is around 55 years of age, very few pediatric cases have been reported since 1986 when the first AIP was introduced. It has so poor prognosis that mortality rate is over 70% although intensive care is supplied. We experienced a 3-year-old boy whose clinical progress and radiologic findings were typical with acute interstitial pneumonia which was confirmed by necropsy, showing diffuse alveolar damage with proliferation of fibroblasts and inflammatory cell infiltrates. We herein present a case with a with a brief review of literature.ope