Löffler's disease
Related people
A disorder characterized by marked eosinophilia and benign, transient, migratory or successive pulmonary infiltrates, and mild constitutional symptoms. The infiltrates show on the radiographs as irregular opacities. Pulmonary features consist of cough with or without sputum, dyspnoea, chest pains, occasional rales, and pleural and pericardial effusion; prolonged expiration and wheezing. The course is usually mild and is marked by weight loss, fever, and night sweating. Immunologic mechanisms are believed to cause this disorder. Some writers restrict the term to eosinophilic pneumonia due to a parasitic infiltration, but it may also be caused by allergens including drugs, as sodium aminosalicylate. It may occur in either sex at any age.
Kartagener's disease is a chronic form of eosinophilic pulmonary infiltration. See under Manes Kartagener, Swiss internist, 1897-1975.
Bibliography
- W. Löffler:
Zur Differential-Diagnose der Lungenifiltrierungen. I. Frühfiltrate unter besonerer Berücksichtigung der Rückbildungszeiten.
Beiträge zum Klinik der Tuberkulose, 1932, 79, 338-367. Zur Differential-Diagnose der Lungenifiltrierungen. II. Über flüchtige Succedan-Infiltrate (mit Eosinophilie).
Beiträge zum Klinik der Tuberkulose, 1932, 79, 368-382. Flüchtige Lungeninfiltrate mit Eosinophilia.
Klinische Wochjenschrift, Berlin, 1935, 14: 297-299. - M. Kartagener:
Das chronische Lungeninfiltrat mit Bluteosinophilie.
Schweizerische medizinische Wochenschrift, Basel, 1942, 72: 862-864.