FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 341:848 September 9, 1999 Number 11 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

To the Editor: Nousari et al. (May 6 issue),¹ described acantholytic changes in the respiratory epithelium of two patients with paraneoplastic pemphigus and respiratory failure. They suggested that autoantibodies directed against plakin proteins may be responsible for pulmonary epithelial injury. However, we believe the physiologic mechanism of respiratory failure is not defined. The authors did not specify whether their patients had alveolar hypoventilation, ventilation–perfusion mismatching, right-to-left shunting of blood, or impaired diffusion.

The only relevant functional finding in the two patients was a severe obstruction with hyperinflation. The magnitude of the difference between the alveolar oxygen pressure and the arterial . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Wang, J., Zhu, X., Li, R., Tu, P., Wang, R., Zhang, L., Li, T., Chen, X., Wang, A., Yang, S., Wu, Y., Yang, H., Ji, S. (2005). Paraneoplastic Pemphigus Associated With Castleman Tumor: A Commonly Reported Subtype of Paraneoplastic Pemphigus in China. Arch Dermatol 141: 1285-1293 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Zock, J P (2005). World at work: Cleaners. Occup. Environ. Med. 62: 581-584 [Full Text]  
• Nguyen, V. T., Ndoye, A., Bassler, K. D., Shultz, L. D., Shields, M. C., Ruben, B. S., Webber, R. J., Pittelkow, M. R., Lynch, P. J., Grando, S. A. (2001). Classification, Clinical Manifestations, and Immunopathological Mechanisms of the Epithelial Variant of Paraneoplastic Autoimmune Multiorgan Syndrome: A Reappraisal of Paraneoplastic Pemphigus. Arch Dermatol 137: 193-206 [Abstract] [Full Text]