Immune-related severe pneumonia: A case report (PubMed, Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban)
In this paper, we reported a case of immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated severe pneumonia, referred to the relevant guidelines, introduced its clinical features, laboratory and imaging findings, difficulties encountered in the diagnosis and treatment process, briefly analyzed the causes, and reviewed the possibility of immune-related pneumonia should be considered when respiratory symptoms occurred in patients receiving immunotherapy; the increased ratio of blood neutrophil count to lymphocyte count, and the increased ratio of eosinophil count to lymphocyte count could be used as indicators to indicate immune-related adverse reactions in patients; bronchoalveolar lavage fluid examination and bronchoscopy and lung biopsy were helpful for the diagnosis; when immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated severe pneumonia occurred, in addition to symptomatic and sup-portive treatment, adequate glucocorticoid-based immunosuppressive therapy should be given in time, and combined with cytokines monoclonal antibodies and other biological agents, immunoglobulin co-therapy, but the current indications for the use of biological agents were not fully clear, and the use of high-dose immunosuppressive drugs might cause the risk of severe infection. Therefore, according to the relevant literature and the findings in the process of clinical diagnosis and treatment, this paper proposed that the serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α, CRP and other inflammatory mediators in patients may be used as a quantitative indication to initiate biological agent therapy and accumulate experience for better solving similar problems in the future.